Carolina Chocolate Drops

Formed by young, classically trained musicians, Carolina Chocolate Drops aim to carry on the tradition of Southern black string music, which largely died out with the birth of the recording industry and the ascendance of the blues. Most folks today think of old-timey music as bluegrass played by white people from Appalachia, but historically, the music belonged equally to African-Americans from the Carolina Piedmont (central North and South Carolina). The banjo, which originated in Africa, is at the band’s center, but the mix also includes guitars, fiddle, harmonica, and the occasional fife, snare drum, or jug. Some of the Drops’ tunes are slow and soulful, but many are stomping party tunes, designed—just as when the music was born—to keep the audience dancing. The Drops’ performance here will be filmed by John Whitehead, a local at work on a documentary chronicling the black string renaissance. 416 Cedar Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-338-2674; www.thecedar.org