Issue date: 10/1/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Rachel Stone The Carolina Chocolate Drops play music from the Carolina Piedmont region. The band was featured in the movie The Great Debaters. The event was sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, Center for Appalacian Studies and Student LIfe.

Media Credit: Rachel Stone

Media Credit: Rachel Stone

Media Credit: Rachel Stone

Media Credit: Rachel Stone

On Tuesday, Brock auditorium roared with the sounds of folk, blues, jazz, and even, vaudeville music. But this wasn't a big, multi-act festival. All of these sounds came from one band: the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

The Chocolate Drops are an African-American string band, and each of its three members is a multi-instrumentalist, versed in banjo, fiddle, guitar, bones, mandolin and jug, just to name a few.

"You played what you had," Rhiannon Giddens, the group's female vocalist, said about the roots of string bands in the African-American culture some fifty years ago.

Students clapped and cheered, while laughing and shouting at a band that wasn't ashamed to shout back and interact with the crowd.

At one point, several students danced up and down the aisles and in front of the stage at the suggestion of the Chocolate Drops.

The Chocolate Drops are one of the few remaining African-American string bands in the world of music, and recently, they landed a spot on the soundtrack, and in the 2007 critically praised film, The Great Debaters, which starred Denzel Washington.

They learned a great deal of their songs from old time fiddler Joe Thompson, said to be the last black traditional string band player.

According to the band, they come from the musical heritage of the North and South Carolina foothills and strive to carry on the long-standing traditional music of the black and white communities found in those hills.

The band was also the first all black band to perform at the Grand Ole Opry, where they received a standing ovation after their performance.

The night culminated in the band's cover of Blu Cantrell's 2001 R&B hit "Hit Em Up Style," which netted them another standing ovation - only this time by Eastern students.

Beat-boxing and fiddles replaced studio production values when the Drops put their spin on the song.

The ovation given by students at the end of the show begged for the Drops to return to the stage for one more song, and the group was happy to oblige.

They agreed to an extended show, and the crowd showed their appreciation by clapping and dancing along with the Drops during their final number.

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