Carolina Chocolate Drops return to NCMA this summer

Now down to just one original member, Rhiannon Giddens, the Carolina Chocolate Drops are pushing for forward with some new players and this summer they'll return to the Triangle for a big show in Raleigh.

The Drops will once again play the North Carolina Museum of Art's summer concert series on Saturday, August 9. Tickets are on sale now HERE for $45 (reserved seat) or $29 (general admission). There are the usual discounts for museum members as well as discounted general admission tickets for youth ages 7-18 and children 6 and under are free.

Rhiannon Giddens to perform two nights with NC Symphony

As we told you a few weeks ago, the Carolina Chocolate Drops are losing another member at the beginning of the year, but the sole remaining original member, Rhiannon Giddens, will play a big local show in the new year.

Giddens will perform with the North Carolina Symphony for two nights this spring at Meymandi Concert Hall in Raleigh on March 14 and 15. Tickets are on sale now via the Duke Energy Center box office and Ticketmaster for $18 to $60.

The newly revamped Carolina Chocolate Drops are also scheduled to play Merlefest in Wilkesboro on Thursday, April 24. Other performers that night include Alan Jackson, The Duhks and The Kruger Brothers. Tickets are available HERE.

Carolina Chocolate Drops to lose another founding member

Grammy winning Triangle string band Carolina Chocolate Drops will take another blow at the start of the new year when they will lose another founding member, leaving just one.

Dom Flemons will take his leave at the end of the year to pursue solo projects and other collaborations. He follows Justin Robinson, who left the group in 2011. Rhiannon Giddens will be left to carry on the Carolina Chocolate Drops with new players, cellist Malcolm Parson and multi-instrumentalist Rowan Corbett, who will join her in the new year.

Sadly the group has no Triangle dates on the books before the end of the year, so if you want to see the Drops one more time with Flemons, you'll have to head west to Charlotte, Asheville or Knoxville or south to Atlanta. Check out the dates below.

Watch Carolina Chocolate Drops play "Leaving Eden" at Grand Ole Opry

Triangle old-time string band Carolina Chocolate Drops having been touring all the time since the release of their latest album Leaving Eden last February and the band performed the album's title track at the legendary Grand Ole Opry in Nashville back in June. Check out the performance below.

Chocolate Drop member Dom Flemons is also featured on Tom Rush's new CD/DVD live release out on Tuesday, August 13, titled Celebrates 50 Years of Music. You can clips of him playing "What I Know" and "Who Do You Love" with Rush below.

Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Avett Brothers & more earn Grammy nominations

The 2013 Grammy nominations were announced on Wednesday night and artists with Triangle ties have fared fairly well again this year.

Carolina Chocolate Drops received another nomination for Folk Album of the Year for their latest album Leaving Eden. The band won this award in 2011 for Genuine Negro Jig (the award was called Best Traditional Folk Album then).

North Carolina favorites The Avett Brothers are up for Best Americana Album for their new album The Carpenter.

Video: Carolina Chocolate Drops perform for CMT

Local old-time band the Carolina Chocolate Drops are still out causing a ruckus with their latest album Leaving Eden and the band recently recorded a Concrete Country session for CMT.

The band performed the songs "Was You Ever in Quebec," "Cindy Gal," "Country Girl" and "Baby Ain't Sweet Like Mine" for the country network's roots web series. Check out all of the performances below.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops will perform at the Meymandi Concert Hall in downtown Raleigh on Friday, September 21. Tickets are on sale now via the Progress Energy Center box office and Ticketmaster.

New music video from Carolina Chocolate Drops - "Country Girl"

The Carolina Chocolate Drops are stepping up their game promoting their latest album Leaving Eden with a new slick music video for the song "Country Girl" which debuted on CMT's website.

The video features some classic southern images to match the lyrics and vibe of the song, but the main scene is the band playing the song to a barn full of gleeful people dancing and having fun. Check it out below.

As always, the Carolina Chocolate Drops have busy tour plans ahead of them, including opening a few DAve Matthews Band shows in the northeast. The band will return home to play a big show at Meymandi Hall in Raleigh on Friday, September 21. Tickets will go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. on Thursday, May 17 via the Progress Energy Center box office and Ticketmaster.

Record Store Day 2012 is coming with tons of exclusive releases

Record Store Day is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year and has continued to grow larger every year. This year's big day is Saturday, April 21, and the massive list of exclusive releases has just been announced, which features quite a few local acts and others with local ties.

There will be exclusives from Bowerbirds, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Hiss Golden Messenger and Ryan Adams, as well as releases from local labels Merge and Yep Roc including Arcade Fire, Destroyer, Jukebox the Ghost, M. Ward, Paul Weller and Richard Buckner. Check out the details of all of the aforementioned releases below and check out the full list of releases HERE.

Video: Carolina Chocolate Drops perform "Boodle De Bum Bum" for WNYC

Carolina Chocolate Drops new album Leaving Eden was released last week and the band have been hard at work promoting it, which recently included a stop at WNYC radio station in New York.

They performed the playful "Boodle De Bum Bum" live on the air and WNYC was kind enough to post a video of the performance online, which you can check out below.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops will be touring fiends through the spring into the summer, though no Triangle show is on the books right now (though they did play Chapel Hill in February before the release of Leaving Eden). Check out their current tour schedule below.

Carolina Chocolate Drops releasing 'Leaving Eden' in February

North Carolina's own Carolina Chocolate Drops are set to release the follow-up to their Grammy winning 2010 album Genuine Negro Jig next month.

The new album produced by Buddy Miller is titled Leaving Eden and will be out on February 28 on Nonesuch Records. It will feature 15 songs with the usual mix of traditional tunes, covers and originals. Check out the full track list below (the songwriters are in parenthesis).

The band will be on tour in 2012 which includes a show at Memorial Hall in Chapel Hill on Friday, February 3 with Luminescent Orchestrii.Tickets are on sale HERE for $29 to $69.

Video: Carolina Chocolate Drops film a session during the Newport Folk Festival

We just posted The Love Language's session from the up-and-coming website Sleepover Sessions, and now another local band has played for them. That band is the Carolina Chocolate Drops who took some time during their stop at the Newport Folk Festival to film a few tunes.

Featured are "Corn Shucking Jig," "I Truly Understand that You Love Another Man" and "Run Mountain." The latter of those songs features something I've never seen before, which is Dom Flemons playing both the banjo and pan flute at the same time. Check out the performances below.

The quartet will play the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh on Saturday, August 27. Tickets are available HERE. Carolina Chocolate Drops' show at the At Museum has been canceled due to Hurricane Irene. For refund details, click HERE.

Duke Performances rolls out 2011-12 season, Alexi Murdoch, Carolina Chocolate Drops & more

It's that time again. Duke Performances has rolled out their new 2011-12 season, and as always, it's an ambitious mix of folk, classical, jazz and experimental music as well as so much more.

This season, the performances have expanded farther outside Duke's campus, featuring shows presented at Carolina Theatre, Durham Performing Arts Center, Motorco Music Hall and Casbah as the series becomes more and more integrated into the wider Durham arts scene.

Carolina Chocolate Drops hit Daytrotter Studio

Durham string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops hit the Daytrotter Studios recently and the five-song session just made it's way online.

The band played a mix of tunes, including "Po, Black Sheep" from Dom Flemons 2009 solo album American Songster,  "Sourwood Mountain" from the Drops album Dona Got a Ramblin' Mind, a smooth version of "Why Don't You Do It Right?" from Genuine Negro Jig and a few unreleased songs, "Skillet Good and Greasy" and "Julianne Johnson/Arkansas Traveler."

Download or stream the session HERE.

Carolina Performing Arts announces 2011-12 season, Mavis Staples, Herbie Hancock & much more

With the 2010-11 seasons of college performing arts winding down, it's time for the 2011-12 seasons to roll out, and Carolina Performing Arts at UNC is first up.

The schedule is full of some of the usual classical, jazz and dance performances, including trumpeter Wynton Marsalis returning on March 15, 2012, but it's the more contemporary performers that piqued our interest.

Louisiana pianist and composer Allen Toussaint will team up with legendary soul singer Mavis Staples for a performance on September 14, 2011.

Carolina Chocolate Drops win a Grammy!

The Triangle's own traditional string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops have won a Grammy! In the pre-telecast portion of the awards, the Drops won the award for Best Traditional Folk album for Genuine Negro Jig, beating out Luther Dickinson & The Sons Of Mudboy, The John Hartford Stringband, The John Hartford Stringband and Ricky Skaggs.

This great news follows the news earlier this week that principal Carolina Chocolate Drops member Justin Robinson is leaving the group. Beatboxer Adam Matta and multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins will join the group, and Robinson is still expected to perform with the group from time to time. Robinson is certainly leaving the group on quite a high note.

Video: Carolina Chocolate Drops & Luminescent Orchestrii perform "Short Dress Gal"

Nonesuch Records released the anticipated self-titled EP from Carolina Chocolate Drops and Luminescent Orchestrii on Tuesday, January 25 and now a performance by the groups is out.

The groups along with beatboxer Adam Matta performed "Short Dress Gal" at the Bowery Ballroom in New York last year and it was filmed with multiple cameras. The result is an funky, sharp version of the old jazz tune. Watch it below.

Carolina Chocolate Drops will perform at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh on Saturday, August 27. Details are still "to be announced."

Carolina Chocolate Drops to play NCMA in August

We're still a long way from summer, but it's not too soon for the folks at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh to be booking their summer concert series. The always busy, and now Grammy nominated, Carolina Chocolate Drops  are the second band to be announced for the series. Bela Fleck was the first and will play on Saturday, June 4.

The Carolina Chocolate drops will play the outdoor stage on Saturday, August 27. Ticket details for the show is not available yet, but we'll keep you posted once they are.

If you don't want to wait that long to see the Drops, you can head over to Greensboro on Saturday, March 12 where they'll be playing the Triad Stage. It's their only other show in the area unless you want to go all the way out to Brevard in April.

Carolina Chocolate Drops to release EP with Luminescent Orchestrii

Triangle string band Carolina Chocolate Drops have had an incredibly busy 2010, which saw the release of their Nonesuch Records debut, Genuine Negro Jig in February. Rigorous touring has ensued since keeping the trio busy.

With that said, they group to find time to record a new four-song EP with New York-based Romanian gypsy punk band Luminescent Orchestrii. The EP is self-titled and will be released on CD, 10" vinyl and as a digital download on January 25 via Nonesuch.

The EP will feature the songs "Short Dressed Gal," "Escoutas (Diga Diga Diga)," "Hit 'Em Up Style" and "Knockin'." Pre-order the release and stream 30-second clips of each song here.

UPDATE: Carolina Chocolate Drops & The Low Anthem announce December dates, coming to Raleigh

Nonesuch Records labelmates Carolina Chocolate Drops and The Low Anthem are teaming up for a short run of dates in the south in December. The tour kicks off in Atlanta on Dec. 4 and wraps in Raleigh at the Lincoln Theatre on Dec. 11.

Tickets for the Raleigh show are scheduled to go on sale to the public on Friday, Oct. 1 via etix for $18 and a fan pre-sale will begin on Tuesday, Sept 28 via Carolina Chocolate Drops' website.

[UPDATE: The Low Anthem are no longer playing the Raleigh show on December 11. The band will be heading to Nashville that night to play the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium with EmmyLou Harris. Carolina Chocolate Drops will still play the show. A new opener has not been announced.]

Most 2010 N.C. State Fair performers announced

Autumn is quickly approaching and the North Carolina State Fair is just three months away. With that in mind, the organizers have announced most of the performers that will play Dorton Arena from Oct. 14-24.

For the most part, it's the usual stuff, Christian, Country and past American Idol contestants. But this time, they've tossed in an interesting wild card, local old time string band Carolina Chocolate Drops. The trio will play on Sunday, Oct. 17. Tickets are just $5 and will go on sale Monday, Aug. 2 here.

There are still three holes in the schedule that have not been announced yet and maybe we'll get lucky and something else cool will be announced, but obviously we're not holding our breath. Check out the current schedule below.