AUSTIN, Texas -- There were plenty of notable acts conjuring up buzz at last weekend's South by Southwest music-industry convention. But one of the most talked-about groups was a young acoustic trio with a repertoire of old-time songs spanning multiple centuries, Durham's Carolina Chocolate Drops.
The late-20s/early-30s trio of Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson won raves at all half-dozen shows they played, including one on the back porch of a swank hotel for a small crowd of industry types. Their label president introduced them as "where the past and future collide," and the group more than lived up to that.
Wielding guitar, banjo, fiddle, jug, castanets and even kazoo, the Chocolate Drops played mostly songs dating from long, long ago - tunes associated with largely forgotten acts such as the Carolina Sunshine Trio and Papa Charlie Jackson. But the best moment was the set closer, "Hit 'Em Up Style," a 2001 hit for Blu Cantrell.
A revenge fantasy about infidelity, "Hit 'Em Up Style" proposes a shopping spree on the cheater's credit card as the ultimate in retail therapy. Robinson kept time by human beatbox, and Giddens was on her feet and testifying by the end - "So you better let him know that/If you mess up/You gotta hit 'em up!" - inspiring toe taps, head nods and whoops all around.
After the set, the Chocolate Drops retired to the hotel cafe to talk a bit before heading off for their next performance. Old-time string-band music is generally not considered a hot commercial property, and yet the three are making it work. Improbably, their major-label debut "Genuine Negro Jig" (Nonesuch Records) made it to No. 150 on the Billboard 200 album chart, alongside the Michael Bubles and Toby Keiths of the world.
"Five years ago, this would not have happened," Robinson said. "There's been a lot going on that contributes to our current success, like a general awareness and resurgence of acoustic music in general. And the music industry's been completely shaken up. There's more room for someone like us right now."
The Chocolate Drops' success resembles that of the Chapel Hill band Squirrel Nut Zippers, who also re-created old styles of music through a contemporary prism. It took an unexpected MTV hit (for the song "Hell") to drive the Zippers to million-selling status, which is not likely to happen for the Chocolate Drops.
Still, stranger things have happened. Nonesuch, which is home to Laurie Anderson, David Byrne and other alternative-leaning acts, is the perfect label for taking an offbeat act unexpectedly far. The group has already cracked some high-profile venues, including "A Prairie Home Companion," The Grand Ole Opry and a star turn in Denzel Washington's 2007 film "The Great Debaters."
Freshness and zeal
But the best thing the Chocolate Drops have going for them is freshness, an ability to make old music sound and feel relevant. While they're not the only current musicians attempting to bring old-time music to life, they might have the most to offer.
"No one else carries on with as much vision and breadth as the Chocolate Drops," said Glenn Hinson, a UNC-Chapel Hill associate professor of folklore. "They're rethinking the entire genre, what this music used to mean and what it still can mean. There's a missionary zeal to what they're doing, but they don't see themselves as revivalists.
"They very much want to bring the music to contemporary times and express current concerns. So they'll easily mix hip-hop flavoring into some pieces because it's who they are."
All about the song
That contemporary bent also creeps into the songs they choose to play. In addition to "Hit 'Em Up Style," "Genuine Negro Jig" includes a cover of a 2004 Tom Waits song, "Trampled Rose." But they realize that there's a danger in turning that into a gimmick.
"It has to be a good song, and it has to go through our process," said Flemons. "We're like the board of directors for Carolina Chocolate Drops. Bring in a song and we'll consider it, work it over. A lot fall to the wayside. There has to be a way to exploit the melody that was not on the original."
"If there's room to do something with it, we will," Giddens said. "We have to be able to add something. The day we go looking for the next 'Hit 'Em Up Style' is the day we need to quit. That's not the kind of band we are."
While it probably won't get as much attention as "Hit 'Em Up Style," the album's title track makes a fitting centerpiece.
"Genuine Negro Jig" goes back to the 1800s, and it is associated with a black string-band family from Ohio named the Snowdens. So the group retitled it "Snowden's Jig (Genuine Negro Jig)." It's an incredibly exotic-sounding instrumental, conjuring up images of dancing Gypsies.
"I'm very fond of that because it's like me," Giddens said. "I've been called every race that's brown-skinned, so I think it's great that that song gets called klezmer, Middle Eastern, gypsy, Bangladeshi - even though I don't know what that would be. But it's nice."
