Carolina Chocolate Drops

[Thomas Alleman]

I am not sure if this is so relevant but this group has brought back the black roots of the fiddle music do take a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdLRCSOZ7wo

[Utley]

Re: Carolina Chocolate Drops

Sounds good to me.........

[Danny]

Re: Carolina Chocolate Drops

I am not sure if this is so relevant but this group has brought back the black roots of the fiddle music...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdLRCSOZ7wo

Tom -

Thanks for spotting this great vid/music. I'm gonna look to see if this group has made a CD or download I can buy.

You're right though, no particular relevance to this group, at least as I understand it. This song is in the style of music developed in the Appalachians and the South just as many CW veterans were dying off after 1900. No black roots music here*, except that black fiddlers, particularly slaves, did play European reels and jigs at white folks' dances, and reels and jigs became a source for this post-1900's Appalachian / Southern music.

The banjo player uses "frailing" style with a couple of typical Bluegrass licks, a style developed well after 1900. I won't even mention banjos had no frets, steel strings or resonator backs in the CW (oops I did anyway) so the actual sound here is nowhere near what a CW soldier, black or white, would have heard.

Perhaps the jug playing is the one thing which might not have changed much since the Civil War.

*Other opinions?

- Dan Wykes

[Thomas Alleman]

Re: Carolina Chocolate Drops

I found it interesting that this ROOTS music is coming back. It may not come back in CW form and it has been given a modern makeover but it still alive. And has a audience. I do not think they know what CW reenactors have done to recapture this music. Email them and ask.

[Danny]

Re: Carolina Chocolate Drops

I found it interesting that this ROOTS music is coming back. It may not come back in CW form and it has been given a modern makeover but it still alive. And has a audience. I do not think they know what CW reenactors have done to recapture this music. Email them and ask.

Tom-

I think it's great that some early 20th century music is coming back, recaptured by the Chocolate Drops and others interested in that era. I'd think though we'd want to keep that particular style away from CW reenactments, except for some of the mainstream Sat. night Balls, where the standard doesn't need to be so high.

Fortunately for us the popular music of antebellum and CW times is also coming back, recaptured by some dedicated mid-19th century living historians and period musicians, many of whom have posted to this forum - check out the recent fiddler's posts and Mr. Anderton's U-tube posts.

As an aside there's also been considerable research on the African-American roots music you seek. That material won't lead you to groups like the Chocolate Drops but it is fascinating on it's own.

- Dan Wykes

[eric marten]

Re: Carolina Chocolate Drops

Dan:
I agree with you wholeheartedly. Without taking anything away from music styles outside of our civil war era focus, it still is better to keep it away from reenactments and mid 19th century living history events. The early 20th century string band music, both black and white groups, is beautiful and an extremely important part of our heritage, and did much to preserve some aspects of 19th century traditional music and culture, but it is not right to portray it as mid 19th century. Enjoy it on its own merits. There was a group I used to know and listen to in the 70's and early 80's, Pat Conte and the Canebrake Rattlers who performed and preserved a lot of this style of music, and they were great, but they never tried to impose themselves on historical reenactments. I would even extend this thought to the so-called "mainstream" Saturday night balls at events. With so many musicians performing accurately, and beautifully, and with period instruments, appropriate gut strings, and bonafide period music transcriptions which are now so much more easy to acquire than, say, 25 years ago, there should be no need to compromise. But, outside our hobby and focus, anything that preserves bits of our American heritage and culture should be encouraged and enjoyed.

[Thomas Alleman]

Re: Carolina Chocolate Drops

I am bummed they just came here to Ann Arbor,MI to the Ark and yep I missed them. I just love the old timey sound. Damn Oh brother.

[Amtmann]

Re: Carolina Chocolate Drops

I'm still trying to figure out what this group has to do with the Civil War and Civil War music...

[Old Cremona]

Re: Carolina Chocolate Drops

I'm still trying to figure out what this group has to do with the Civil War and Civil War music...

About as much as a Ruger has to do with a LeMat, Rick. How come the really pointless threads get to stay up in the music section?

[Silas]

Re: Carolina Chocolate Drops

How come the really pointless threads get to stay up in the music section?

Does moderator Dusty play an instrument? That could be the basis of the problem.

I cared little about this subforum until I started playing something more than bones. Didn't know the difference between old tyme and minstrel. Resonator banjo with metal strings? No problem as long as the music sounded old to my uneducated ear. Now that sound is like fingernails on a chalk board. I don't want to hear Cluck Old Hen or Ashokan Farewell at events either.

I nominate Carl or Rick to assist Dusty in moderating this forum.

[Danny]

Re: Carolina Chocolate Drops

...How come the really pointless threads get to stay up in the music section?

Carl, Rick, Mark, et. al -

Respectfully, this topic may be out-of-scope, but "pointless" is a bit harsh.

Tom deserves our equal respect for sharing what he thought might be a genuine African-american roots connection to CW era music. Our fellow reenactors, some of them African-Americans, and Tom and Chris will please be allowed their interest in exploring the issue, whether it pans-out or not.

So it appears a stylistic connection between the Chocolate Drops and the CW doesn't exist. That in itself is good information. Some will come away with a more authentic view, some with a more-authentic impression, and only a few experts with nothing.

btw there are posts here (ahem) who often reference post-1900 accounts, to be consistent about it.

- Dan Wykes

[amity]

Re: Carolina Chocolate Drops

Hey! I know the guy that wrote Ashokan Farewell!

[Amtmann]

Re: Carolina Chocolate Drops

Hey! I know the guy that wrote Ashokan Farewell!

Again, I'm trying to figure out what that has to do with the Civil War or Civil War music...

[Amtmann]

Re: Carolina Chocolate Drops

Hey! I know the guy that wrote Ashokan Farewell!

Again, I'm trying to figure out what that has to do with the Civil War or Civil War music...

[Danny]

Re: Carolina Chocolate Drops

Again, I'm trying to figure out what that has to do with the Civil War or Civil War music...

Geez Rick, I think Amity was joking about the Ashokan Farwell thing.

- Dan Wykes