This young African-American stringband ensemble has been making big waves in the roots music community with their deep, rich take on fiddle and banjo music from the Carolina Piedmont region. The trio—Rhiannon Giddens, Justin Robinson and Dom Flemons—has been under the tutelage of the last black traditional string band player of Mebane, NC, whose musical heritage runs as deeply and fluidly as the many rivers and streams that traverse the Carolina landscape. Carrying on the tradition of black musicians like Odell and Nate Thompson, Dink Roberts, John Snipes, Libba Cotten, Emp White, and countless others, the Carolina Chocolate Drops are preserving a unique American art form that is on the wane.

Most people think of the southern Appalachian Mountains as the source of fiddle and banjo music. While the mountains of Virginia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina are strongholds of traditional music today, they are certainly not the source. The nuances of Piedmont stringband music stem from the demographics of the Piedmont, and thereby its focus on the banjo as the lead instrument. Among black ensembles, the banjo often set the pace. If a fiddle was present (often it was not), it served as accompaniment and not as the lead instrument, as is more common in the Appalachian tradition. A guitar or mandolin would have been rare, not unheard of, but the foundation of this tradition is rooted in the antebellum combination of fiddle and banjo. For more about the African-American old-time tradition, visit blackbanjo.com.

CHOCOLATE DROPS FOR KIDS: The Carolina Chocolate Drops' visit to Santa Fe will be prefaced by a visit to La Mariposa Montessori Elementary School, where the band will introduce the kids to the old time musical heritage of the foothills of the Carolinas. Packed with educational and historical facts about music and traditional instruments, the program is delivered in a way that holds younger children's attention while at the same time providing advanced information for older grades. The program introduces children to the banjo, guitar, fiddle, harmonica, kazoo, and jug, as well as hand rhythms. One aspect of the presentation that has special resonance for the kids is how mus ic was made hundreds of years ago using found objects such as a jug as musical instruments.

Funding for this project was provided by the Western States Arts Federation, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Foundation for Educational Enhancement. Special thanks to the McCune Charitable Foundation for contributing to Southwest Roots Music's K-12 Matching Program, in which teachers, students and staff are provided free tickets to performances they may not otherwise be able to attend.