Carolina Chocolate Drops – New Haven Green – June 23, 2012
This is the second dynamite concert of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas. Opening band Caravan of Thieves, gypsy-swing oriented, was cool enough placeholder, giving me time to scope out my insertion into the sitting/sketching location amongst the earlygoer crowd. CCD has dug really way deep into the roots of black music, filling in the blank space (and treading on the margins) between minstrelsy and early jazz. I do not believe anything modern to be more authentically old-timey, as they exhort us to find our way towards making the music work for us, with casual nonchalant introductions, profound backstory revelations, and respectful musical virtuosity. Cornbread and butterbeans indeed!
Dom Flemons
Rhiannon Giddens
Hubby Jenkins
Leyla McCalla
Carolina Chocolate Drops