- Announcer: Due to language and adult situations,
the following film is intended for mature audiences
and not suitable for children.
Viewer discretion is advised.
[upbeat music]
[birds chirping]
[rooster crows cock-a-doodle-doo]
[rooster crows]
["Trouble in Your Mind [live]" The Carolina Chocolate Drops ]
- ? Wished I had a nickel ?
? I wish I had a dime ?
? I wish I had me a pretty girl ?
? You know I'd call her mine ?
? Don't get trouble in your mind ?
- Rhiannon Giddens: We had this thing that was bigger than ourselves
and that's how it started.
We had something pretty special,
like, from the beginning.
? Don't get trouble in your mind ?
- The music:
the way for it to live is for it to be exciting.
So, tried to make it
great-sounding music
but also wanted to rock,
wanted to rock hard.
? Trouble, trouble ?
? Trouble in my mind ?
? Trouble don't kill me ?
? I'm sure I'll never die ?
? Don't get trouble in your mind ?
[crowd cheers and applauds]
- Dom: All right.
Well, we're The Carolina Chocolate Drops .
[crowd cheers]
And we're going to play you some tunes tonight.
Some old-time stuff,
a little bit of the blues, some jazz,
a little bit of the good stuff to get you shaking and moving.
[crowd cheers]
? Your baby ain't sweet like mine ?
? She bake a jelly roll all the time ?
? And when I'm feeling lonesome and blue ?
? My baby know just what to do ? ? Yes ?
- Dolph Ramseur: The Drops, it's its own unique little thing.
They sort of mix old-time mountain music
with the Piedmont blues.
- ? She even buys me all my clothes ?
- They're an old-time band
with a little bit of #### and vinegar about 'em.
? Your baby ain't sweet like mine, no, no ?
? Your baby ain't sweet like mine ?
- Ah, play that home.
[kazoo solo]
- Ah, play like [inaudible] like it.
- Rhiannon: My name is Rhiannon Giddens
and I play the 5-string banjo,
the fiddle, the kazoo,
and that's about it in the band.
? Your baby ain't sweet like mine ?
- Dom: Dom Flemmins
I play the guitar,
the 4-string banjo,
the harmonica, the jug,
the snare drums,
the bones, quills.
? She even calls me honey ?
- Justin: Justin Robinson.
I play fiddle, and 5-string banjo,
jug, autoharp,
and human beatbox.
? Sweet like mine ?
[playing kazoo solo]
[crowd claps and cheers]
[picking banjo]
- Rhiannon: When I found out that
blacks had such a huge part of it--
not a little part, but a huge part of it--
I was like,
"Ohhhh."
- Justin: I've been searching for the roots.
I've always been searching for the roots.
And just that fact, me playing this music,
I've began to find all those roots,
and how I find my place,
how I find my place in the world.
- Dom: I got caught up in
the idea of pre-blues.
And I have been searching it out by recording.
[laughing]
- Narrator: The Carolina Chocolate Drops first emerged
as a band with a mission:
to reclaim the all-but-lost tradition
of black string band music.
- We were just going everywhere we could
with the idea of black string bands
and show the world about that.
Then, schools started reaching out to us.
- Rhiannon: I'm going to play a little bit
on this here .
This is a what ?
- Students: Banjo - Rhiannon: Banjo.
Where's the banjo come from?
- Dom: Let's see, the one in the back, standing.
- Student: Africa - Rhiannon: Africa.
Did it always look like this?
- Class responds in unison: No. - Rhiannon: No.
Well, I want to show you one that I brought from Africa.
Look at these threads.
It's hundreds and hundreds of years old, so,
people were playing this instrument
before slavery time.
So, you see, that's the evolution.
This became this .
[playing fiddle]
- Narrator: Until recently,
country, bluegrass,
and old-time string band music
were assumed to be exclusively white or European in origin.
But new scholarship
paints a different picture.
[scratchy, hissy audio on film]
- Woman: C'mon John, c'mon."
[playing bluegrass on the banjo]
- Narrator: Introduced to America
by enslaved Africans
the banjo was played exclusively
by Africans and African-Americans.
During its first 100 years in this country.
[playing fiddle]
And some may be surprised to learn that
before the Civil War,
the fiddle was known as a black instrument
in the rural south.
Though largely unknown today,
a black string band tradition
persisted well into the 20th century.
- When you talk about black sting bands
or black rural music,
you come into this very interesting world
where you find there's a whole parallel universe
and it's never been commercially viable
so it's really not a style of music
that people have heard of.
And that's a cultural revolution
that's just needed to happen.
["Georgie Bucks" The Carolina Chocolate Drops ]
? Georgie Bucks is dead ?
? The last word he said ?
? Don't put no shortening in my bread ?
- Narrator: The Carolina Chocolate Drops
are one of the first African-American bands
to revisit this music
in probably a century or more.
- David Bither: The fact that they were African-American
exploring a lot of older music
that hadn't typically been considered
to be African-American music
was interesting intellectually,
but you could leave all that behind
because the power
and the exuberance
of what was happening on-stage was phenomenal.
[students clapping along]
[applause]
[large crowd cheers wildly]
- Announcer: The Carolina Chocolate Drops
["Hit 'em up Style" The Carolina Chocolate Drops]
[beatboxing]
- Gritty voice: That's right. C'mon, c'mon.
- Rhiannon: Something is moving through us, with the music.
So, we go onstage, we just play.
We were put together for this reason
[crowd roars "Whoo!" loudly] and our job is to let it out.
? You better let him know ?
[sassy hard-driving country] ? That if he mess up you gotta hit 'em up ?
[crowd cheers with thundering loudness]
- I've had so much fun this weekend.
- This is the best thing I ever do.
The best thing I've ever been to.
- Thank you so much, man!
[bones clacking musically]
- Rhiannon: The gathering was
originally supposed to be sort of a gathering
of all the black banjo players
and string band players out there,
of which there are, you know, very few.
Just say, "Hey, okay, we all exist.
"Let's all get together, trade tunes.
Talk about where do we go from here."
[chuckling deeply]
- Completely ballooned
into this four-day extravaganza,
complete with, you know,
competing documentary crews
and people taking photographs
and, you know, Béla Fleck.
[plucking banjos playfully]
- Bob Carlin: The impetus of this conference
was to take back ownership
by African-Americans of the banjo
because it is such an important part
of American musical culture
and the African-Americans did play such a big part.
[playing banjo]
- The fact that the banjo's
only played by Africans for the first hundred years
of being in this country is something huge.
It kind of changes your whole aspect,
our whole view on race relations,
how things were in the American South,
you know, migration patterns.
This has lots of other implications
other than that it just came from Africa.
[fiddling]
[conversations in background]
- What's your name, man? - I'm Jesoh.
- Rhiannon: I think
that's the whole point of this conference is that:
it's not just, "Make sure that we know
that banjo is from Africa."
It's also this intersection of cultures
that happens in old-time music
and with the banjo
and the fiddle.
And I just think that that's so important.
[jovial laughter]
[plays fiddle]
- Rhiannon: Where I'm from, Greensboro,
there's a lot of old-time bands.
That's when I really started hearing old-time music.
Really, really liked it
and it really grooved me
and I started getting into it.
I was usually the only raisin in the oatmeal.
I mean, only white--
Only black person, like,
at contra dances,
at old-time jams,
at, you know, any of this stuff.
When I found out that blacks had such a huge part of it,
and not a little part, but a huge part of it
I was like, "Ohhhhhh,
this is, like, part of me.
It's not so freakish that my--
like, I have a white uncle who plays bluegrass.
He's in a bluegrass band, you know.
And, like, that's not far-removed from my other side.
You know it's all, like-- It's all intertwined.
- Justin: I found out about it
on the Friday of,
I jumped in the car that Saturday morning,
drove to Boone from Chapel Hill.
Got there in 2 hours,
which is, of course--
I was doing a hundred the entire time.
And I got a speeding ticket, but it was no--
Certainly, was well worth it.
- Bob: Do you want to show 'em
what the square dance music and calling would sound like?
- Joe: Well, yes, I feel I ought to.
- Justin: 'Cause I was trying to make it
for the session that Joe was going to be playing at.
[square dance music]
- Rhiannon: Joe Thompson is-- no exaggeration--
probably one of the most important musicians
living in North Carolina right now.
He is one of the last traditional black fiddlers
of the frolic tradition.
Playing for square dances in black communities
were called frolics .
[Joe calls "Old Corn Liquor"] ? Great big eight ?
? All the way left ?
- That tradition, where it was fiddle and banjo,
they would play for the dances 'til God know how long,
how late in the morning.
? Stand square ?
? Right by right ?
- Rhiannon: He learned from his father,
who learned from his father.
So, it's oral tradition community-based music.
Wasn't meant to be on a stage.
- Man: One more time!
- I love that one. [Joe Thompson chuckles]
- ? Georgie Buck dead ?
? The last word he said ?
? Don't put no shortening in my bread ?
- Justin: I though Joe was dead.
I've been doing a little bit of research
and I found out about Joe.
When I saw Joe's name on the bill,
like, there is no way
there's another black Joe Thompson,
you know,
who would be about this age, who's playing the fiddle.
So, I was like, "That's got to be him."
- Joe: Nice to be here this evening
in front of everybody and wants to
let 'em know
I appreciate being here with 'ya.
- I got there just in time for him to go on,
I saw him and was just--
It just completely changed my world.
I was just, you know,
grinning from ear to ear.
I met Rhiannon there.
[clapping rhythmically]
I saw Dom.
Dom and I didn't talk.
'Cause Dom, I was kind of put off by Dom and his hair.
He was like the crazy guy in the back.
So I, you know, and I didn't stay.
I only stayed for half a day.
So, you know, I was like, "Hey,"
I was talking to Rhiannon, "You know, we should play sometime."
- Hey, there's a black dude with a fiddle case,
but he didn't play any.
He was just there, you know, just to scope it out
and he had braces at that point
and that's what I remember [cracking up] the most.
There's a black guy with braces.
And we talked a little bit,
and he's like "Yeah, I really wanna, you know,
I really wanna study with Joe."
And I was like,
"Oh, we should get together and play."
- I listened to a lot of stuff on, like,
Old Hat Records , a lot of 20s, 30s.
It's like if I play it to friends of mine, they don't like it.
- Rhiannon: I met Dom the first day,
and he has this over-the-top,
sort of, personality.
- It's like saying,
it's like an ear of corn compared to cornbread.
It's, like, made from the same stuff,
but it ain't the same.
- Rhiannon: Definitely, the musical spark was first.
- I started playing "Banjo Picking Girl"
and he picked up his harmonica.
It was really, it's a really neat moment.
[warbles harmonica]
[laughter] [warbles harmonica]
- Awesome.
[starts playing fiddle] - Let's do this thing.
? Well, I met old Satan in the lane ?
? And I hit him in the head with a walkin' cane ?
? I'm going to wear that starry crown over there ?
? Over there, over there ?
? I'm going to wear that starry crown over there ?
? Well, I got no skillet and I got no lid ?
? Ash cakes taste like shortenin' bread ?
? I'm going to wear that starry crown over there ?
- Justin: Then, I moved up to North Carolina.
- Dom: We just sat in Justin's place.
- And just started experimenting with different styles
of traditional music
to fit with their fiddle and banjo duo.
- ? Well I hit old Satan through the door ?
? Hit him in the head with a two-by-four ? [Dom pats guitar]
? I'm going to wear that starry crown over there ?
? Over there, over there ?
? I'm going to wear that starry crown over there ?
- Rhiannon: It ended up, when Dom came over here,
it just turned into this solidified rock-solid threesome.
- Justin: And it's a completely a new and unique folk music.
So, it's really not a style of music
that people have heard of.
I mean, even all of us had never really heard about it
before we went to the gathering.
- How many times do you think have we played that song?
- I don't want to count. [laughing]
[birds chirping]
[car passes by]
- Dom: By that point,
Justin and Rhiannon started going down
to see Joe Thompson.
- Justin: I've still been going to see Joe
all this time.
While Rhiannon then started coming with me every week,
and then Dom came later
we all started going as a band.
- Rhiannon: Hey, hey! - Hey, Joe!
[people greeting each other]
- Justin: 'Cause first, it was coming from Joe to me
to Rhiannon.
Started coming directly from him
to all of us at the same time.
- Joe: How you doing?
- Woman: I'm good.
You doing all right? - Joe: I'm doing pretty good.
Hey. - So, getting all this knowledge
collectively as a band.
Really helped to solidify us, I guess.
- Joe: All right, I'll get over to Rhiannon,
back in the corner.
Okay, uh-oh!
- Dom: You got all right, Joe? - Hmm?
- You get up all right? - Joe: Yes, excuse me.
[police siren in background]
I'm only a hundred and seventy-five.
[laughter]
- Rhiannon: He's 87.
He's been playing fiddle for 80 years.
He lives in Mebane, North Carolina,
which is where he was born,
where he was raised,
and where he played the music,
worked at the factory, you know, and drove his tractor,
and he's still there.
He used to play with his brother, Nate.
They grew up playing together
and then Nate moved away.
So, he started playing with his cousin Odell,
and then, see, Odell was killed at MerleFest one year,
crossing the road.
He was hit by a car.
It was awful.
So, since then,
there was nobody left in his family
to play with for him.
Honestly, he probably would not have
picked the fiddle up again
if it hadn't been for people like Bob Carlin, Steve Terrell.
but no other people in his culture
have really gone down to play with him
on a consistent basis.
[Rhiannon starts playing the banjo]
["Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad" Joe Thompson, The Carolina Chocolate Drops ]
? Goin' down the road feeling bad ?
? Well, I ain't going to be treated this way ?
- Tim: He opened his house to people every Thursday
for decades
to come and play.
And, I think at this stage,
very few people are coming by.
And I imagine his surprise
to see three young black kids
come in his house.
I know he was delighted.
- Dom: When I first went to the black banjo gathering,
what amazed me was,
was the way that I found out about
this whole Black vernacular music that wasn't--
that hadn't really been talked about.
When I met Joe Thompson,
his music put that into an actual physical space.
I got to feel and experience the music in a way
that most people--
I don't think in a hundred years--
would've had the chance to experience.
["Oil in my Vessel" Joe Thompson and The Carolina Chocolate Drops ]
- ? I've got oil in my vessel ?
Where's the guitar?
- All: ? I've got oil in my vessel ?
? And my lamp's trimmed and burnin' ?
? I want to be ready when the bridegroom comes ?
? Well I got oil in my vessel ?
? Want to be ready when the bridegroom comes ?
["Amazing Grace"] ? Amazing grace ?
? How sweet the sound ?
? That saved a wretch like me ?
? When I once was lost ?
? But now I'm found ?
? Was blind but now I see ?
? I got oil in my vessel ?
- Rhiannon: But I do think the fact that he's seeing
a continuation of his tradition.
I mean, I can't speak for him,
but I think, he's excited about it.
He's seeing the band of his family again, you know.
He's seeing black youths
playing his family's music.
? I want to be ready when the bridegroom comes ?
? Must Jesus bear this cross alone ?
? And all the world goes free ?
[birds chirping]
? No, there is a cross for everyone ?
- It just shows the power
of traditional southern music.
Musicians throughout the world
always looking for the south for inspiration.
It's the aquifer of all music.
["Oil in My Vessel" continues]
Here are three young black kids going to the source.
They found the guy.
They took the songs.
? I want to be ready when the bridegroom comes ?
[plucking the banjo]
[clacking the bones]
["Old Corn Liquor" Joe Thompson]
- ? Great big eight ? ? Great big eight ?
? All the way left ?
? Right by right ?
? Call a single ?
? Call a single, I say ?
? Sixteen times in ?
? Then, probably you'll find them ?
? When you get home ?
? I said, get up in the morning ?
? Hey-ah, hey-ah ?
? In the evening, hey-ah ?
? Midnight hour, hey-ah ?
? Get up in the morning, hey-ah ?
? Shake myself, hey-ah ?
? Shake myself ?
? I got to shake myself ?
? Shake myself ?
[playing bones]
[tempo speeds up]
[Dom chuckles]
[traffic in the background]
[Dom exhales]
[tuning sounds]
- This doesn't make a difference.
That's not tuning [inaudible.]
- We would go busking to get more black involvement
with this old-time music
that had a strong history in the community.
? Going down the road feeling bad ?
? No I ain't going to be treated this way ?
? Your five dollar shoe hurt my feet ?
? Well I ain't going to be treated this way ?
? It takes a thirty dollar shoe to fit my feet ?
- Them big feet you got over there!
? Got a thirty dollar shoe to fit my feet ?
- She know what I'm talking about, yeah! [laughter]
? I ain't going to be treated this way ?
- [InaudibleŃ whispering. - Woman: Uh-huh!
- Wow, it was a real learning experience.
Right, I'm from the South
and we don't have things like this at all--
not even bands,
and I can remember from back in his time even.
- Man: Whatever.
- Hear when I said? His time. [laughs]
- It's all DJ now.
No bands, no instrumentals, none.
[rockabilly bluegrass music]
- Dom: We would play for people and they would say,
"Oh, I remember my father, or my uncle, my grandfather,
"they used to play this music.
"We used to have family get togethers
where we'd be playing music."
And so people had a cultural memory
and it would come out
when would play the music.
? Don't put no shortening in my bread ?
? No, no ?
? Don't put no shortening in my bread ?
[crowd claps]
- When The Chocolate Drops
exploded onto the scene,
one of the things that made them so powerful,
was this idea of a three-legged stool.
You know, the three strong individuals
that brought three different strengths to the group.
[door clicks shut]
- David Bither: Dom, in some ways,
is the resident scholar of the group.
- Dom: This is the very first black string band recording
I ever heard, here.
? ?
I started out playing folk songs from the '60s.
And then, I got into the older blues players.
And from there, I started stepping back even farther
and going into the old Lo-Fi '20s recordings.
Right here, that's an acoustical microphone
before they had electronic microphones.
Hammie Nixon used to play with Sleepy John Estes
in the late '60s and early '70s.
- David: From the way he looks,
to the way he thinks,
to the way he performs,
he carries the roots most visibly.
[crowd cheering and whistling]
- Rhiannon: He has
this over-the-top personality on stage.
There's this really larger-than-life character
whose sole aim in life is to entertain.
? ?
[audience claps and cheers]
? A gal worked in a bakery shop ?
? Sellin' donuts and lollipops ?
? Preacher comes in for to save her soul ?
? And she asked him to fix her a jelly roll ?
? But the guy didn't fix ? ? Ain't no doubt ?
? Nobody knows what the song's about ?
? Too bad that the news got out ?
? But the guy didn't fix ? ? Right on ? [crowd cheers]
[kazoo solo]
[playing bones and harmonica]
- Afi Scruggs: Dom was playing bones, little bones.
And I looked at him play.
And he was playing the bones so quickly
his hands blurred.
I mean I'm like, "Whoa...
[chuckles]
Oh, snap! What's up?"
- Justin: Hey, come over here.
[fiddle solo]
- Justin, he's from North Carolina.
He's got that authenticity.
He's got all this grease in his fiddle.
He's got the connections to the ancestry.
[dog pants, shakes their collar]
You know, he has coon dogs.
I mean, he's the ideal
sort of, like, southern country fiddler from the tradition.
- This here's our resident fence jumper, Neptune.
That's why he has to stay on the chain.
I grew up in a musical household.
My mom sang opera and played cello.
My sister played the piano.
So, I played violin as a kid.
- Rhiannon: 'Old' is the key word.
I mean, there's a old fiddler from the old tradition.
He'll go try to learn tunes from him.
- Tim: Lot of fiddlers know where all the notes are.
Justin plays the four, five perfect notes,
and has the greatest rhythm,
and he's one of the most badass
breakdown fiddlers you'll ever meet.
- Rhiannon: I grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina,
heard some bluegrass music, and jazz records,
and sang a lot of folk songs
like Peter, Paul and Mary , that kind of stuff, growing up.
? ?
? You may wonder ?
? What's the reason ?
? For this great big smile ?
? Say I haven't ?
? Been so happy ?
? For the longest while ?
? I can go where I please ?
? I can come where I please ?
? I can flit, fly and flutter ?
? Like the birds in the trees ?
? Because ?
? I'm no man's mama now ?
? I can say what I like ?
- Rhiannon is an amazing musician.
'Talented,' I think,
does not describe her
- ? I think you're gettin' it ?
- Tim: She's Oberlin-trained conservatory opera singer.
- Afi: She's a prodigy and she went her own way.
? I'm no man's mama ?
? Now ? [vocalizing]
[audience cheers wildly]
- Justin: She brings in a lot of the,
you know, Celtic, you know, the British Isles stuff
into our repertoire.
- ? When the waters flow ? ? And the grasses grow ?
? In the free and easy wind ?
? Give me enough of that bang old stuff ?
? That's made near Galway Bay ?
And Dom brings the country-blues, and the city-blues,
and some early jazz.
And I bring this really rooted-in-North-Carolina sound
so its kind of mixture of three different backgrounds
and three different approaches to music,
but it works really, really, really well.
? ?
[cheers and applause]
[speaking with U.K. accent] - Sensational sound of The Carolina Chocolate Drops .
[cheers and applause]
- The Carolina Chocolate Drops: I heard about,
"They're out playing with Joe Thompson."
- Rhiannon: Because we've got a sound check and all that stuff.
We're supposed to play at 12.
- So, where are we going to be at, that exact stage?
- Yeah.
- Tim: The time I finally met them
was at the Shakori Hills Music Festival.
-Rhiannon: 'Cause we gotta check in at this tent thing up here.
- When I met The Carolina Chocolate Drops,
they were playing square dances for 25 dollars...
split between all of them.
- Rhiannon: Carolina Chocolate Drops.
- Tim: Then they played Shakori,
where they made a whopping 250 dollars.
? ?
- ? I'm going down the road feeling bad ?
- I went down and saw them
and I was just stunned.
Maybe 125 people were there.
- ? I'm going down the road feeling bad ?
? No, I ain't going to be treated this way ?
- Tim: Everyone was going crazy.
? ?
I have this great pictures of Dom
throwing his guitar
and doing the splits.
- Rhiannon: I just remembered when we started,
we were okay in the beginning,
but we weren't fantastic . [chuckles]
I mean, you know,
we were finding our way as a band
and we had a lot of energy.
[audience claps and cheers]
But people really loved it.
It just really told us that
it's not about being virtuostic with what we're doing.
They loved the energy, they loved the history,
and we gave them a show.
- Fan: Yeah, you guys are the real thing to come across to.
- What you guys are doing is such the missing connection
that most people don't hear.
- Tim: To my amazement,
after the show--
there's maybe a 100-some people there--
I bet 85 of them got in queue
to buy this homemade CD that didn't even have a cover.
- Justin: In there, is our email address
and our website.
- Tim: So, I got in line with everybody else.
I told them I was Tim Duffy and Dom said, "Oh, I know you.
"I checked your records out of the Arizona Public Library.
"I learned about John Dee Holeman , Neal Pattman ,
" Algia Mae Hinton .
Your recording of Preston Fulp is just great."
He knew all of my records.
- I had known Tim's Music Maker albums
so he and I got to talking.
It was pretty much like, "Well,
do you guys have management?" and we said, "No."
And he was kind enough to say he'd start managing us.
- We're making CD inserts.
- And I don't know what these are,
but we can look. - Okay.
We also produced "Dona Got a Ramblin' Mind,"
which we recorded just a little bit beforehand.
- Justin: A big production studio
- Whoo!
- Tim: And they just had made a master.
Rhiannon, at that time,
was burning the CDs on her computer.
- Rhiannon: We sold 30 last night
and that would be 28 extra cards.
That's 58 CDs.
Is that possible? - Sure!
- Tim Duffy: And I said, "Look,
"without even listening, I'll put those all on Music Maker ."
And they're like, "Great".
So Dom told the other guys,
"Let's work with Tim."
[old-time music]
- And I just started booking.
I soon got a good booking agent.
I can't even remember all the things.
It was like bang, bang, bang!
- Rhiannon: We did just like ridiculous things
in a very short amount of time.
- Dom: We got up to MerleFest.
We did the Folk Alliance to great success.
- Tim Duffy: Early on, within weeks,
you know, we're a part of Denzel Washington's film.
They played the Philadelphia Folk Festival.
They went to California, played a big festival.
- Radio Host: Here with K-U-T 90.5
and we are welcoming Carolina Chocolate Drops
into the studio.
- Dom: And then, also,the power of radio.
- How would you describe the music you play?
- Dom: Like doing the Terry Gross--
doing All Things Considered .
- All right, my dear.
- Dom: That really blew things up.
- Rhiannon: Just all these firsts, you know,
Prairie Home Companion and Grand Ole Opry .
- Dom: Nashville, the strip,
barbeque joints and honky-tonk saloons.
It's good to be here.
- Now, I want you all closer together.
There you go.
Okay, and you too, Justin,
just a little bit.
One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand,
three-one-thousand, four-one-thousand.
- Photographer: Oh-ho-ho!
- Whoa! - God!
- We're in Nashville, Tennessee today,
June, the 14th, 2008
- Photographer: Look at me, everybody.
- We're going to be doing the Grand Ole Opry tonight.
[background chatter and camera clicks]
- Little Jimmie Dickens: And welcome to Nashville
and to the Grand Ole Opry,
Nice to have you here!
Glad to have you!
[chatter and laughter]
- Bill: Carolina Chocolate Drops the very first black string band
to ever play on the Grand Ole Opry.
Not the first African-American performers,
but the first string band.
- You took me back home.
Oh, my, I love that.
I love that.
We don't hear enough of that here.
[warm laughter]
- Dolph: The Drops are kind of pushing the boundaries
without really even--
just by being themselves, really.
- Oh, did you catch this picture here?
Bill Monroe , Porter Wagner ,
Little Jimmy Dickens, and Jay Leno .
- Justin: My parents are huge country music buffs.
They always have been and
that's kind of the music that kind of--
along with R&B and other things, too--
but country music was a huge part of my,
you know, early former musical years.
You know, Vince Gill and Lyle Lovett,
and all, you know, [chuckles] those kind of people.
- Rhiannon: Look at you [Justin plays a few notes]
going back to those roots.
My mom's black,
my dad's white.
So, growing up, I had this sort of hybrid upbringing.
Getting into this music,
helps me make sense out of
what I grew up with.
My colored side, or African American-- whatever,
I just hate labels,
but the melanin-empowered side.
[laughs]
You know, listening to Hee-Haw .
I mean, that's where I got Hee-Haw from
was from that side, not the white side.
You know it helps make sense of that.
["Starry Crown"]
- I mean, sure, Charlie Pride's done it.
The African-American singing country music,
it's not an everyday occurrence.
[audience cheers]
- Announcer: The Carolina Chocolate Drops!
- In a couple years, they played [inaudible].
- How 'ya doing? [crowd cheers]
- Seeing them is a big part of the equation.
Cause it's, you know,
just so visceral and so... in-your-face.
? ?
They just took control of the stage.
- I keep on saying the word "thrilling."
It was just a thrilling performance!
Now, they worked harder than I did,
but I was the one who was sweating [laughs] when they finished.
[audience cheers and whistles]
- They were a force, you know, to be reckoned with.
- Y'all were fantastic!
- Steve Martin: It was a great show!
- Thank you! - Martin: A really great show!
- So, it just kind of built from there.
- Tim Duffy: I was getting calls from the Midwest,
and places in Virginia
places in Oklahoma,
Unbelievable! It was mind-blowing.
The deep reach into core America and the universe
that these guys had.
They struck a nerve.
["Cornbread and Butterbeans" (live)] ? Cornbread and butterbeans ?
? And you across the table ?
? Eating them beans and making love ?
? As long as I am able ?
? Growing corn and cotton too ?
? And when the day is over ?
? Ride the mule and cut the fool ?
? And love begin all over ?
? Goodbye don't you cry ?
? I'm going to Louisiana ?
? To buy coon dog and a big fat hog ?
? And marry Suzianna ? - Rhiannon: Oh, yeah?
- ? Sing-song, ding-dong ?
? I'll take a trip to China ?
? Cornbread and butterbeans ?
? And back to North Carolina ? - Rhiannon: Aw, yeah!
- Tim: The brighter the star shone
and the more that they were having to be living on the road,
you know, this is something that Dom adapted to very easily.
I mean, this is his life's passion,
this is what he wants to do.
He adapted to the road very quickly.
- You know, what else can a musician want? [chuckles]
You know, people come to your shows,
you get paid to do your shows
and you get to do it as a full-time job.
I know a bunch of mother####### that don't got that,
and they are, you know, struggling,
trying to make it, or they quit.
? Cornbread butterbeans ?
? And you across the table ?
- Tim: Whereas Justin, you know, he's a country boy.
- Justin: And some people are born ramblers;
I'm not. It's not my thing.
- He likes getting up in the morning early.
And, you know, he's a great cook.
You know, he's got his hunting dogs,
he raises chickens.
Next thing you know, you're playing a show,
you're driving half the night,
waking up at a Motel 6,
you're going to the Waffle House day after day after day.
? Ride the mule and cut the fool ?
? And love again all over ?
- Rhiannon: I don't even know
how we made it through sometimes.
Travel and, you know, the food,
and then, with all the emotional stuff on top of it.
It was just like...
intense.
- Do you want to do "Your Baby Ain't Sweet"
or do you want "Cindy Gal"?
Do you have, like, a preference? - Dom: No.
- Tim: When I first met the group,
I suspected that Rhiannon and Dom were a couple.
But you really couldn't tell.
That's how they separate
their private lives and their professional lives.
Information is almost-- not guarded but separate and walled.
You know?
And so, one time, I asked them, at my house,
"Are you guys a couple?" you know.
They said, "Yes, they were/"
This is very short-lived.
Early in, I mean months after I met them,
they decided to break up.
- Dom: She broke it off
after she took her trip to Gambia.
- Rhiannon: Want a piece?
- Dom: And she met Michael,
who's her husband now
and father of her two children.
And that was about two weeks after we had broken up,
she had started talking with Mike.
Then, broke it off with me and went with him.
So, that didn't leave me in a particularly good place.
[bird song]
- I always thought Dom was hell of a man to have a break up,
and then, within months, she has another boyfriend,
and soon be married,
and traveling with that man,
all in the same van, for a year.
I think it was tumultuous, you know.
It was hard on Dom and it was hard on Rhiannon.
- Rhiannon: I don't think we should dictate to people
what they can and cannot dance to.
- You're losing the whole point. - Well, you're not making--
- The point is trying to accommodate,
both the people sitting down
and the people that are standing up.
- Dom: Rhiannon and I have always had
a tumultuous relationship,
especially on-stage and how we put the tunes together.
- Why do you always repeat his verse,
"I'm going down the road, feeling bad?"
- So,that was something that
we inflicted upon everyone.
Justin was there for a lot of that.
? Whee ?
- Dom: Rhiannon, you're so out the door!
? Run the old man, oh ?
? Well, baby, it's someone you know ?
- Rhiannon: He would say stuff to me on stage,
and then, we kind of, like, had to put the kibosh on that.
- Adam Matta: Dom would feel some tension
in that he wasn't getting enough attention.
He didn't have the shine he wanted, for whatever reason,
wasn't even totally exactly the truth.
The audience still was blown away by him.
[audience cheers wildly for Dom's harmonica solo]
- Dom: Actually, I can't look at some footage
from a particular time because there was so much unease
and so much pain and tension on stage.
- Yeah, some of that stuff was just... bad!
[harmonic, bones, audience cheers and applause]
We'd go on stage after having some sort of row
and on we had to play.
[whistles, cheers, and applause]
- Not worth having if you don't play [inaudible]!
- Rhiannon, can you jump in on this? - Justin: Dom...
- Can you jump in on this, Rhiannon?
- Justin: You was eating it up--
- Dom: Can you jump in on this, Rhiannon, please?
- Rhiannon: You know what?
- Dom: Please jump in on this.
- Rhiannon: I'm gonna jump in on this.
I'm going to jump in on this to the fact that
I think we should talk about this later.
Cause I'm so angry right now,
I can't even talk.
Alright?
I'm angry!
We need to do something.
We need to have a meeting,
because, what we did up there--
- Dom: Started out fine in the first half.
- Rhiannon: So, I think we need to have a meeting.
- Dom: That sounds great to me.
- Justin: Are you getting the back story?
I hope your camera's on!
- David: None of us knows what it's like
to be on the road 120 days a year,
to share a kind of creative mission.
I think Dom and Rhiannon
have their very different ideas about many different things.
I think they share that sense
of what the mission of this group is,
and I think Justin did, too.
I think that is what tied them together.
Sometimes those paths diverge.
It may have been there from the beginning.
You know, you're not a family
where you're all born into it together.
You're choosing,
as they did coming out of that black Banjo gathering.
You know, we all love this music,
but they all loved it from different points of view.
? ?
- There's sort of this intuitive thing
that happens between an artist and an audience,
that, you know, where they feed on each other.
That's a very hard thing to invent.
["Milwaukee Blues" Charlie Poole & the North Carolina Ramblers ]
? One Tuesday morning and it looked like rain ?
? Round the curve come a passenger train ?
? Fireman said once you open the door ?
? He's a good old hobo and he's trying to get home ?
? Trying to get home ? ? Trying to get home ?
? Just trying to get home ?
? He's a good old hobo and he's trying to get home ?
- Oh, play it, play it
- They do it even in troubled times
- She's a perfect foil to
Dom's much more freewheeling, loose approach.
- Rhiannon: When I started performing,
I was performing classical.
You know, for 18 to whatever,
and that's a very specific, you know,
stand straight, nothing's--
you know, if you're in a recital
nothing's moving except for your mouth.
And then, if you're in an opera
it's all it's like one--
it's like 0 or 60.
? ?
[audience cheers]
- Oh, yeah.
["Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!)" Blu Cantrell]
[Adam Matta beatboxing]
- Dom and I started working together,
he's very, very loose.
- Dom: C'mon! C'mon!
- Rhiannon: No-- Didn't want a set list.
He'd stop in the middle of a song
if it wasn't what he wanted to play
and start at new song,
I mean, even playing at like, you know,
cafés and pizza places and stuff,
stagecraft didn't really matter.
- ? While he was schemin' ?
? I was beamin' in the Beamer, just beamin' ?
? Can't believe that I caught my man cheatin' ?
? So I found another way to make him pay for it all ?
? So I went ?
? To Neiman-Marcus on a shopping spree ?
? And on the way I grabbed Soley and Mia ?
? And as the cash box rang I thought everything away ?
- Rhiannon: So, we kind of met somewhere in the middle,
which was great for both of us.
That he tightened up, you know,
'cause I was like,
"Well, we're having a set list
'cause I really don't want to be on the fly here. [laughs]
You know, and he was just like,
"You know, you really need to relax."
And, [laughs] you know, so that was great.
[acoustic pulses with joyful vengeance]
? Hey, ladies, when your man want to get buck-wild ?
? Just go back and hit 'em up style ?
? Get your hand on his cash ?
? And spend it to the last dime ?
? For all the hard times ?
- I think she's come from that world
where things have to be perfect
and suddenly got picked up and placed into a world where
nothing should be perfect or you don't even
you don't think about that.
You just think about this you know.
Oh, sorry about that
[laughs] Just banged the microphone.
Sometimes she's caught between the two,
but I think there's a lot of times
when it just kind of
clicks off and she lets loose.
? Hey ladies, when your man want to get buck-wild ?
? Just go back and hit 'em up style ?
? Get your hands on his cash ?
? And spend it to the last dime for all the hard times ?
? Oh, when you go then everything goes ?
? From the crib to the ride and the clothes ?
? So you better let him know ?
? That if he mess up you got to hit 'em up ?
? Hey ladies ? - Men shout: ? What! ?
- ? If your man want to get buck-wild ? - ? C'mon, hey! ?
- ? Just go back and hit 'em up style ?
? Get your hands on his cash ?
? And spend it to the last dime for all the hard times ?
? If your gone then everything goes ?
? From the crib to the ride and the clothes ?
? So you better let him know that if he mess up ?
? You got to hit 'em up ? ? Hey ladies! ?
? If your man wanna, wanna [sultrily] get buck-wild ?
? Go back and hit 'em up style ?
? Get your hands on his cash ?
? And spend, spend it, spend it, spend it, it's gone ?
? From the crib to the ride and the clothes ?
? So you better let him know ? ? You better let him know ?
? That if he mess up you got to hit 'em up ?
- Thank you so much, Raleigh, North Carolina!
[cheers and applause]
["Jackson" Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash]
? We got married in a fever ?
? Hotter than a pepper sprout ?
? We've been talking 'bout Jackson ?
? Ever since the fire went out ?
- Justin: I got really tired
of playing the same songs every night.
I just got tired of it.
I just don't want to do it anymore.
I got really good at it, certainly,
but the fact that we were playing so much,
150, 200 days a year
sometimes more than that.
One year we did 250,
which is absolutely
too
too many,
too many, for me.
? ?
The technical skill goes way up
but I think the creativity, sort of,
there's like an inverse relationship there.
So the technical skill goes way up
and the creativity goes way down.
- It's the title cut to our latest album called
Genuine Negro Jig
and we're going to play this one for you.
["Snowden's Jig"]
[clap] - Hey!
[plays violin downtempo in a minor key]
[Dom plays bones]
[violin goes silent, bones solo]
[beatboxing]
[bones solo]
- Audience: Yeah! Whoo!
Whoo-hoo!
- They're a band that can take
the musical elements of that time period,
[Matta beatboxes] especially 1830s, 1840s, kind of birth of minstrelsy
and add maybe kind of a beatbox thing on top of it
that ties the feel of that music from that 19th century
directly to the hip-hop era.
["Snowden's Jig" continues]
[rousing cheers and applause]
- And the fact that we were playing this fairly obscure music
on Nonesuch Records was amazing.
- For a guy like David Bither and Nonesuch
to stick their neck out to take a black string band
was quite unusual.
He has access
to the best producers in the world.
- And please welcome Joe Henry.
- Dom and Rhiannon connected to Joe Henry,
just a smart guy knew exactly what to do with those guys.
- Nothing about it seemed overly reverent
or trapped in an idea of roots music.
It seemed very much like
a very raw spirited performance
and I was completely intrigued by them.
- That took quite a while to get through the deal,
to get on to Nonesuch .
- So, they've been holding these songs
and they should have recorded them that year
and then they held onto them a whole 'nother year.
They were sick of those damn songs!
? ?
- Justin: Recording Genuine Negro Jig,
which was a terrible experience,
and I will tell anybody who asks, "It was awful."
[chuckles] I don't ever want to record that way ever again.
It has nothing to do with Joe Henry,
it had everything to do with us.
It was what we were playing,
it was the situation.
- Dom: Justin didn't want to be there,
didn't care about any of the songs,
and then, Rhiannon was pregnant and sick the whole time.
And.. that was really hard,
especially with Justin.
The music was very much--
had to be what was in his heart and he truly believed in.
? ?
? I will twine with my mangels and waving black hair ?
? With the roses so red and the lilies so fair ?
- Justin: Old-time music for me
is very much a social music.
And so, playing it--
I was playing it, I met a whole other set of folks
I've never known before and became friends with,
not to mention Joe, and so,
it was wrapped up in a social situation
of playing this music together.
["Don't Get in Trouble in your Mind" Music From the Lost Provinces, Old Hat Records ]
- Justin: For me, turning that music
that I played with Joe or with my friends, into a stage music,
it didn't...
There wasn't enough depth there for me.
- ? Don't get trouble in your mind ?
? Don't get trouble in your mind ?
- The music, just purely sonically,
purely like putting on your headphones
and turning to "Soldier's Joy" [chuckles] on your iPod
is not enough for me.
[insects buzzing]
[rooster crows]
That, in addition to the connection to place ,
[horse swishes tail]
those songs were meant-- for me, were place-based.
Those two things gone...
I mean, who cares
if I'm playing a song from North Carolina in Minneapolis?
I mean, it stops having
the same meaning that it did then.
? ?
What is appealing to me is, like,
exploring what I'm going through right now.
? ?
? If I say the words ?
? Could you be ?
? Coerced ?
- It lead up to another creative outlet,
led me to do a solo project.
Because I wasn't getting certain needs fulfilled
creatively with The Chocolate Drops .
? I had a loved one who was carried off by the wind ?
? Freight trains and broken lamps ?
? She met a blustery end ?
? I had a loved one ?
- Rhiannon: And then, me and Justin were starting to
break out a little bit of the box.
Justin definitely was starting to write songs.
I was starting to write.
I wrote a song and had him help me finish it.
We even recorded it for Genuine Negro Jig
and Dom said "No, because that looks like it'll be a hit."
So, we don't want to detract from the album.
So he put the kibosh on putting that.
[inhales sharply]
It's just, that was where he was with it.
? ?
- Dom: I've resisted writing song because
the wealth of material that we can present to the public
and being able to arrange that
is, to me, a lot more powerful of a statement
than just being another singer-songwriter.
- I love seeing something
come out of where nothing was before.
It's like true creation.
It's not like reassembling of stuff.
It's like where nothing was something now is.
- Dom: Justin never thought we created anything
because if we learned it from somebody else,
it wasn't our creation, even though we had
unique arrangements for every song that we did.
We're doing traditional music and it's so easy
for people to ignore traditional music for original music.
- That's why I didn't want to stray from the path
of just making sure The Carolina Chocolate Drops
was an old-time string band
and presented its version of old-time music.
That was what made the group so popular,
was that we were a young black string band
that did this music.
["Sandy Boys"] ? Hey, sandy boys ?
? Hey, get along I said ?
? Hey, sandy boys ?
? Waitin' for the brink of day ?
[violin solo]
- Can you sign that for me? - Sure thing, man.
- Thanks, bro.
I'm looking forward to the next year.
- Oh, yeah, man, it's going to be a ball.
- Dom, for years,
had a backpack with quills and harmonicas,
and banjo strapped here,
and a guitar here,
and that's how he walked around.
When we started playing big gigs
we'd go play at the Smithsonian
or some big giant gig,
or play a big show in New York
he'd come back to Chapel Hill and be playin' street music.
I mean, it was almost kind of embarrassing
when you're trying to get a record deal.
You know?
But the guy was just out to meet the people
and he has a mission to take this folk music to the people.
- ? Hi-ho, fiddle-li-day ?
-Fans: ? Hi-ho, fiddle-li-day ?
- ? Hi-ho, fiddle-li-day ?
Fans: ? Hi-ho, fiddle-li-day ?
? Hi-ho ?
- Fans: ? Hi-ho ?
- Yeah!
- This what you want to hear?
That was written by Thomas A. Dorsey,
the father of gospel music.
But this is not a gospel number.
This is one of his early numbers.
You know, he also wrote the song "Honey is tight like that."
- Between the two other two band members and I,
we have really different ideas about performance
in a lot of ways.
Like, they're definitely from a folk-y vein
and that is not where I'm coming from.
- A lot of dance tunes tonight,
and this next one is no exception.
This is one we got from
North Carolina-native, Joe Thompson.
Sometimes we can take it beyond
just what is behind the song,
to what is behind the whole era, you know.
Cause you can't just say,
this is a song we learned from Joe Thompson.
Like, who's Joe Thompson?
You know, why is he important?
- Glenn Hinson, he met a guy named 'Guitar Slim' Stephens,
and Tim let me borrow Guitar Slim's guitar
after 'Guitar Slim'....
- You don't really realize until you go on tour how important
the food that you want,
cooked the way that you want it is.
- The other part, I was like,
"Wow, this is so much talking in between this songs."
That's just something I didn't agree with for a long time.
Like, it's just,
"Stop freaking talking, and just play the music."
If it's compelling, people will get it.
If it's not, people won't."
- All I hear is,
"I like the stories you tell."
"I love you talking about the history and I love the music
because it's just good."
That's what I hear from our fans.
- I felt like I had moved on from old-time music
as something that I felt that I needed to express myself with,
and he had not.
["Traveling Shoes" Robert Randolph & The Family Band ] ? Get on board because I ain't got on my traveling shoes ?
? Death come a riding by the gambler's do' ?
? He said Old Gambler you ready to go ?
? And then the Gambler looked down and said ?
? No no no ?
? I can't get on board ?
? Because I ain't got on my traveling shoes ?
? Ain't done my duties say ?
? No no no ?
? I can't get on board ?
? Because I ain't got on my traveling shoes ?
- Rhiannon: Having Mike come on the road and the baby,
I firmly believe and
I think people would agree with me, you know,
saved the band at that point.
? Yes yes yes ?
? I'm ready to rise ?
Before Mike started coming on the road with us,
before I gave birth to Aoife,
we've been all traveling in a white 16-passenger van.
And, cause I was like,
the only woman in this
you know, man vehicle.
I mean, they were fine.
They're not even bad dudes
when it comes to like lots of beer and belching
and spitting and all that kind of stuff.
But it was still male energy.
And not that Mike's not male,
but he's my male. [laughs]
It just makes a difference, you know.
But having that new energy,
Mike's a very calm, calming influence.
- His wife wanted to tour
and so instead of staying home with the baby,
he went on as the primary caregiver,
or a caregiver with Rhiannon on the road.
[audience applauds]
- I was deciding to nurse, and I was just like,
I'm not giving that up, so...
either they come on the road or I stay at home
and, you know, we can't gig.
So, it seemed like the right thing to do.
- Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma! [baby coos]
- So, we created this sort of home life on the road
that they could participate in.
That was important for things to continue
but...
he would've probably been able stay longer
had the creativity stuff
and the personality conflicts he was having with Dom.
[rushing water current]
- No, I definitely see myself
doing, like, a variety of other things.
You now I'm not yet thirty.
I have several other careers left in me
at this point in my life.
- He's from a family of highly-educated people.
And he's five years into it and he's getting older.
[birdsong]
- What's the next on my horizon
is probably going to have something to do
with plants or forest or wildlife management.
- And so that was a major decision
that a true artistic soul
to turn his back on a well-defined career
to do something unknown.
- We've got a CD that we released this year, in February.
It's called Genuine Negro Jig .
[audience cheers]
And we just found out a few days ago
that we have been nominated for a Grammy.
[audience cheers]
- He eventually hit a burn out point.
He didn't really know how to articulate it.
I think at that time,
but when he finally did
it was really at this kind of odd time when we--
He'd said he's going to quit
and then we got the Grammy nomination at the same time.
- He actually called Dolph and said, "I quit."
[chuckles]
You know like, "I'm not doing ANY MORE."
And I... we had a discussion.
I was like, "Look, I understand I totally get it,
"but you have to do the rest of these shows with me.
"Just for your respect for me as a band mate,
please finish all this year."
And he finished out the year.
[crowd cheers and whistles]
- They did 150 shows.
That means you're out on the road
maybe 190 days out of the year.
They went everywhere, worked like heck,
and then they won a Grammy off that record.
- To have a Black-American string band
sell 100,000 records in this day and age
when selling records of anything is a challenge.
We were thrilled with how it did.
[fireworks booming]
- It's like that great monologue at the end of
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas .
It talks about the acid trips in San Francisco
and how they got completely ###### ## on that,
and said like,
"If you look out over in the distance,
you can see that high water mark
where the wave went up, crashed, and fell back into the sea,
never to go back that high again."
[fireworks explodes and crowd cheers]
I think about that sometimes.
And Justin really threw a wrench in it
'cause he just kind of said, like, "I'm done."
We had two months to figure out how to get the group relaunched.
- Rhiannon: We didn't really miss a beat.
It was kind of amazing.
Dom had a relationship with Hubby Jenkins up in New York.
He's a multi-instrumentalist,
had just picked up the mandolin,
and was already gang-busters on it.
And then we found Leyla.
- When we were doing Leaving Eden ,
that's when the decision was made
to bring in Leyla on cello to augment the band,
which was a great, great move.
? So tall and slender ?
? Daddy was a charmer ?
? He was a handsome man ?
? But when he'd move it ?
? Lord the ladies lose it ?
? Daddy was a dancin' man ?
- Rhiannon: And so,
that was the second time the band was saved,
was through Hubby, and then, Leyla.
That's what kept me going,
was working with those people.
Dom has a very specific way of looking at the universe
and I have a very specific way of looking at the universe
and they're not compatible.
Well, I'm not on that other set right now.
I'm on this set.
- We could never agree on what we wanted to do with the group
from there.
- Nonesuch had said,
"You know, I don't think there's another album after all
Because the two of you can't really see eye to eye."
So, they pulled the record deal.
- What'd you get, steak? - No.
- Was that pasta?
- Dom: Where now, it's Rhiannon, Hubby, Leyla.
- Rhiannon: Which one do you want?
Do you want the pasta or the broccoli and turkey?
- Dom: And then I'm standing to the side,
and that's evolved after two years.
Then I'm just kind of standing there.
I have the same notions.
I have not changed the way I feel about the music
and what I'm trying to put out there.
Everybody else around me has .
- I did a little interview with him.
I was like, "What do you like about playing in the band?
What do you don't like?"
"What's your favorite thing in the world to do?"
and he told me, "Playing solo."
And I said,
"Well, what the hell are we even talking about this for?
That's what you should be doing."
[rain falling]
- Rhiannon said she couldn't work with Dom anymore,
and I thought the mission
of keeping The Chocolate Drops alive was really important
and so did Dom and so did Rhiannon.
You know, it just didn't work out.
? Hush now, don't you wake up ?
? We'll be leavin' at first light ?
? Momma's buyin' you a mockin' bird ?
? To lull you through the night ?
- Frankly, the record company--
She had the voice,
has an incredible voice,
and so, had the weight of
Nonesuch Records and David Bither.
She could keep it going.
? But I am not afraid ?
? Of that bright glory up above ?
? Dying's just another way ?
? To leave the one's you love ?
- The idea was she would keep the name going,
and then, the deal that's struck, you know,
would help Dom launch his thing.
- Dom: Let her take the group,
I just need enough for me to build my own niche over here.
- And that's basically what happened.
- There's not really much to say
because what we've left behind after eight years of playing
can kind of say it all:
five albums, one Grammy, a Grammy nomination!
[crowd cheers and applauds]
This is me, Dom, and Justin with Joe Thompson
on a Thursday night, sitting around,
sweltering, and you know, like you said,
there's not really much to say
'cause we've done it all,
we've played it all, [Dom chuckles]
and that's all.
[crowd cheers and whistles]
? Enjoy now the trouble ?
? It's a few more words to part ?
? Short life of jumble, little girl ?
? But the boy with the broken heart ?
[crowd continues to cheer]
- There were three band leaders
in the original trio.
It was never destined to stay forever.
Even without some of the personal,
personality issues,
that was never going to stay.
Because everybody had very specific ideas
about what they wanted to do,
and we made it work for as long as we could.
- Pat Sky, the old folk singer, who knows Tim
he said that,
he predicted that we'd last for five years
before we finally were tearing at each other's throats.
But we lasted eight so we almost doubled that!
[laughs]
- Ringo Starr said ten years is enough for a band.
There was no future.
And I think it all really ended
when Justin left.
That was the group.
- Dom, Justin, and I came together.
And we did do something extraordinarily important.
I think the fact that the three of us went down
and played with Joe Thompson,
that that was the beginning of the mission.
I really, really feel
so fortunate to have been a part of it.
- And the fact that they got to absorb Joe's history,
at the last possible moment
when he was still vibrant and vital,
it literally is a passing of the torch,
in a real way.
- It's totally outside of the mainstream music business,
that all this work was done.
There was nothing in the lexicon
as black string band music.
Now, it's a thing.
- Justin: I love the eye-opening experience that it was.
I got to see the industry sort of inside and out.
I liked that part of it.
But the other part of it,
is that after you do something for so long,
the passion just necessarily,
I feel like, has to subside.
- The music has always been good,
and I feel the legacy that we've left behind
will help be a door for a lot of people.
I mean, I'm very humbled,
and indebted to the fates
in the universe for letting me be a part of it.
[beatboxing]
? Black is the color of my true love's hair ?
? His lips are like some rosy fair ?
- I really wanted to fulfill
what I'm here to do,
which The Chocolate Drops is a part.
I kind of finally had to go,
"Okay, this isn't all of what I do."
- It's been nice.
It's been nice to get back
to my natural habitat as a folk singer.
? Don't need no cup of coffee ?
? In the morning ?
? I can get up fine ?
? Delia is a pretty girl ?
? But she ain't mine ?
? Take a little trip ?
? To the station ?
? I'm bound to go ?
? When I'll see my lover again ?
? I do not know ?
- He's such an intelligent guy.
He writes all the time.
He's being asked to be in the New York Times .
I think he's the great man of letters
of American folk music.
[peaceful melody]
? If I say the words ?
? Could you be coerced ?
? Could you settle down ?
- In a lot of ways, he's the greatest artist of the group
that truly follows his heart.
I was looking at his bio.
It's all about forestry.
I don't think he mentions that he got a Grammy.
It's not even part of his persona.
- Justin: I still love music,
and I've sort of reengaged with music
in a really different way.
Because I've been playing just because I enjoy it.
["Starry Crown" The Carolina Chocolate Drops ]
- For more information about
Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind:
The Carolina Chocolate Drops' Story
go to Fretless Films dot com.