Gig review: Carolina Chocolate Drops

Published on Wednesday 27 January 2010 18:06

CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS ***** GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL

"AS YOU may have guessed, this isn't a classical concert or anywhere you have to be quiet," says Chocolate Dropper Rhiannon Giddens two songs into their Celtic Connections gig. Which is just as well, given the claps, stomps and whoops of appreciation from the crowd.

From opening chord to closing note, this talented threesome had the audience in the palm of their hands. Impossible to pigeon hole, and equally impossible to dislike, the Carolina Chocolate Drops are first and foremost musicians. Trained in all manner of styles, from opera to folk and most things in-between, the young black trio refuse to be tied to any one genre. Switching effortlessly between instruments, Giddens and fellow band members Dom Flemons and Justin Robinson play fiddle, banjo, guitar, autoharp, kazoo and jug, with all three also doing a mean line in vocals.

Given their base, in North Carolina, trad jazz, folk and blues dominate. But then just when you think you've got the measure of them, Giddens blasts out a Blu Cantrell number backed by Robinson's beatboxing, or jumps up to perform a Charleston.

Together since 2005, the band has just released their new album Genuine Negro Jig, containing many of the songs performed in Glasgow – a CD well worth seeking out to tide you over until their next visit to these shores.