This article from EverythingAlabama.com turned me on to a band called Carolina Chocolate Drops that “is pioneering an African-American string revival.”

The idea sounds pretty fresh to these jaded ears:

The Chocolate Drops have been trained in a variety of music styles, from classical to blues to bluegrass. According to [Dom] Flemons [the jug, guitar, snare, harmonica and banjo player], a desire for authenticity doesn’t stop them from liberal integration.

“We feel pretty contemporary,” he says. “We’re taking older music and expanding it, creating a broader soundscape. Older musicians did that, as well. You take things from the past, bring them into the present, and pass them on to the future.”

If you’re not familiar with this kind of music, here’s a primer (from CCD’s website):

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 and if a fiddle was present and it often 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, but not unheard of, in these bands but the foundation of this tradition lies rooted in the antebellum combination of fiddle and banjo.

Here’s a taste of what you can expect if you decide to give their music a listen (go on! Expand your horizons a little bit!). The song is titled “Cornbread and Butterbeans”: