Genuine Negro Jig

Carolina Chocolate Drops | Format: MP3 Music

Product Details

• Original Release Date: January 8, 2010
• Release Date: January 8, 2010
• Label: Nonesuch
• Copyright: 2009 Nonesuch Records, Inc.
• Record Company Required Metadata: Music file metadata contains unique purchase identifier. Learn more.
• Total Length: 38:25
• Genres:
  • Pop
• ASIN: B0036YIBTO
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,236 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 90 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Bite it, purists! February 18, 2010

By Sound/Word Enthusiast

Format:Audio CD

...old-tyme stringband music is a weird field these days. It is experiencing a renaissance, for sure, but it often holds itself hostage by clinging to ridiculous, academic-bordering-on-religious notions of purity and authenticity. Whenever an inventive band like Uncle Earl or Old Crow Medicine Show starts to bend the rules a bit in the name of personal expression, there is a howling chorus self-appointed old-tyme police officers, complaining about how that's not how Gid Tanner/Joe Thompson/whoever would have done it.

This brave, swaggering disk shows that the Chocolate Drops are actually better when they play their own game. It's easily their most assured record yet -- their prior projects were pretty rough around the edges, even for stringband music. They don't have a towering instrumental virtuoso in the band, like the Freighthoppers' David Bass, Uncle Earl's Rayna Gellert, or the pervasive Dirk Powell -- their strengths lie in their adventurous spirit, intelligent use of space and texture, and infectious charisma. On this disk, they really make the most of careful arrangements, like on the haunting title track, which is just percussion and fiddle and yet feels genuinely evocative and full.

Producer Joe Henry wisely walks a fine line between documentary clarity and studio richness, giving the band a deep warm sound with lots of space and a cool stereo picture that still feels natural. This is really their first great album, and I only give it four stars because I think they are capable of even greater things in the future. I'm sure much will be made of the Blu Cantrell cover, but it's hard NOT to talk about...I saw them do it live a while back, and it set the place buzzing, brilliantly drawing a line from the ancient past to the present and into the future. I'd love to see them do more stuff like it...but at the same time, their old-tyme stuff like "Trouble in Your Mind" and "Cindy Gal" have never sounded better.

The world is ready for a band like the Carolina Chocolate Drops. I hope they continue to stay true to themselves and don't get lost in the old-tyme minefield of arbitrary rules and regulations. This record is a big step out of that minefield, and I really can't wait to hear what they do next.

38 of 43 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Genuine Negro Jig is Genuinely Great Gigging February 17, 2010

By Rick Raymo

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

It's an odd time for the music business. Apple wants you to own Digital Rights Managed versions of anything you buy--and they compress it to boot. You can buy compressed versions above, for instant gratification, as long as you buy the CD as well. Well. If you care about audio clarity. ;-)

Simultaneously, it's a great time for music lovers. You see, unless you are trapped in Radioland via ClearChannel Communications and their versions of what ought to be heard by the public--we are seeing and hearing Indie Label Stuff that rises to the top in ways it couldn't have in the past fifty years.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops are one such sweet reminder of greatness as it rises above the fray. (And man, do they!) As much as reviewers are going to want to put them in a pigeon hole? (They are Countrified OR Folk OR Roots-Music Or Bluegrass Or Whatever.) They can't and won't be able to...as no matter where the origination of of style comes from--this band makes it unique. They OWN. They are their own. And with that mix of tradition and their outstanding talents--they surpass labels and are going to end up with the cross-over label from everyone. Which just means that they sell everywhere and are played as popular music. Deeply popular. That their musical talents (and this album in particular) are magnificent is an understatement. These three folks are destined for greatness (ideally together and for a long time.)

This particular set of tunes has had me immediately slam them on the home network, run out for a drive so that I could hear them in the car, get home and curl up on the couch with a great set of can-style headphones and a headphone amp (only to immediately jump up and turn on the audio equipment--subwoofers included and turn them up loud on both so I could feel and hear the music in a wider way...all while trying to Cakewalk around the living room.) In short, I want to hear it, feel it, and enjoy it in every way possible simultaneously. Man. I'd eat it if I could. And as such, this CD is now on my list of very few albums that have hit permanent rotation for the rest of my life. No tune is better than the others. They all flow in unexpected ways from one to the next. There isn't a single lick or simple-yet-astonishing audio trick missing to make this acoustic experience less powerful than the most electric and amped-up music I own.

Yes, stylistically there are great nods to lots of artists--but these three FULLY OWN their destiny/direction/dynamism and have cemented it with this single incredible album.

Buy it. Then buy it and gift it to everyone you think could have the ears and the heart and soul to appreciate it. (As you are fiscally able and as often as able.) There are very few albums that cross into the land where one feels that without it you are less. This one has.... Immediately I knew that without it, I'd be a poorer human and music would be a more desolate world.

It left me wanting more. I am saddened by the fact that with nearly eighty minutes on a Compact Disc, I get about half of that time. But that's OK. Maybe they are saving it for the next album and it is already recorded and ready to roll while they tour.
I want it at a higher bit-rate. No matter how good my audio equipment, I feel like 16-bit Redbook Audio isn't quite eeking out their range. Grin. Maybe T-Bone Burnett could be talked into remastering it via his 'Code' so we can have it on DVD as well. I suspect I'll be without this album multiple times, as I hand it off to someone, tell them to keep it--and order another via Amazon Prime (and give them their extra fiscal bump for Next Day delivery.)

Snowden's Jig (Genuine Negro Jig) seems more than appropriate as the cover cut as it is probably written by the black man who wrote "Dixie." That song ended up in minstral shows, and was satirized to the point where it became the Unofficial Confederate Anthem. It was later copyrighted by a white fellah named D.D. Emmet, who remained rather confused about Dixie's provenience. But we can be sure that Ben Snowden and the Snowden Family Band performed THIS jig. Kudos to the Carolina Chocolate Drops for giving the man his due, and just possibly gently slapping down some of the horrible musical theft that has been our heritage. Snowden's Jig (Yep. A Genuine Negro Jig) is not better than the other tunes on the album--it just fits--like everything about this CD.
The Universe lurched in a subtle and happy way when this album became a hit in Europe and has now zigged and jigged again when it released here.
More please?

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Carolina Chocolate Drops - "Genuine Negro Jig" is the rootsiest of roots music February 16, 2010

By 'Rebel' Rod Ames

Format:Audio CD

Over the years, I have been "turned on" to an enormous amount of incredibly fantastic music, music that has in some cases completely blown me away. A couple artists and their albums that have accomplished the feat of "blowing me away" are artists that eventually became household names. Artists such as Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young's "De Ja Vu", Joni Mitchell's,"Court and Spark" and many others to numerous to name. Most of these artists came out of the late 60's and early 70's. There was an unusually large amount of phenomenally great music that came out of this period.

For instance, The Pointer Sister's 1973 inaugural self titled album, "The Pointer Sisters", followed by Blue Thumb's release of "That's a Plenty", took us on a journey of the jazz music that had to have influenced them in their musically formative years and were both, in my opinion, their best work. In fact, I don't believe they ever got close to either of these records ever again.

This brings me to the subject of the day. Carolina Chocolate Drop's latest release, "Genuine Negro Jig" (Nonesuch Records) is one of those records that completely blew me away. Yes, I can use phraseology such as "instant classic", "innovative", "and absolutely astounding". This record definitely falls under any one or all of those phrases or words.

"Genuine Negro Jig" is easily one of the best albums I have heard in thirty some odd years. The vocals are as smooth as any I have EVER heard, and if that were not enough, each member trades off duties on banjo, fiddle, jug, kazoo, and beat-box and does so with an incredible amount of proficiency. I literally cannot stop listening to this record.

As the Pointer Sisters did in the early 70's with their jazz roots records mentioned earlier, before straying so far off track and, in my opinion, diving off the edge of the world only to be swallowed up by the pop and disco insanity of the late 70's and early 80's. Carolina Chocolate Drops take us on a journey of the "jug and string band" music of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries of their ancestors, and they do it with flair. From the looks of things, I do not believe there is any danger of this trio abandoning what they do. You can tell by watching them they do this with the main ingredient, a heaping spoonful of Heart and a bunch of Soul.

They stay very traditional, yet add elements of modern music to these very traditional arrangements. The talent this trio possesses is incredible. Their proficiency on the banjo, fiddle, and traditional percussion instruments of the era such as the spoons along with other traditional rhythm instruments, work into the arrangements in such away that it nearly feels as if these instruments were new. There is no loss of the freshness of this music, even when Rhiannon Giddens blows her kazoo. I never thought I'd say it, but she makes the kazoo actually sound "cool". When you add the element of "beat-boxing" (which I would not have known had I not seen it with my own eyes), the listener receives a dose of modernization within these otherwise, very traditional arrangements.

Each song creates an atmosphere of dimly kerosene lamp lit rooms with dusty wood-planked floors. The feet stomping on the floor to the beat of this powerful music creates little dust clouds around the listeners stomping feet. Close your eyes while listening to this amazing compilation of songs and see if similar images don't creep into your mind as well.

On most tracks, there is a focus on the trio's silky smooth vocalizations. Rhiannon Giddens is astounding on "Hit `em Up Style", and it doesn't get any smoother than Justin Robinson's voice when he sings "Kissin' and Cussin". On other tracks like the traditional "Sandy Boys", the emphasis is on both the vocals and the instruments.

As mentioned earlier, Rhiannon Gidden's voice is amazing. Her voice is profoundly featured in a simple traditional a Capella tune called "Reynadine". If there really are angels, this is precisely what they would sound like when they sing.

Carolina Chocolate Drops will appeal to just about anyone. One might hear them in Harlem, Nashville, Austin, or Hollywood. However, currently they have a very strong following in the UK where this record was released earlier. The point is, this band will fit in and be welcome where ever they choose to play.

With "Genuine Negro Gig", they walk us through a period of American history that was shockingly detestable to any respectable American citizen. Not one American can deny this horrific past. However, that isn't the goal of this recording.

This collection of songs serve as sort of a history lesson and graphically illustrates how music can help to get us through incredibly tough adversities. Carolina Chocolate Drops, I believe, are not only paying homage to their ancestors who sang and played their way through some incredibly harsh conditions, but are also attempting to resurrect an entire genre of music not just lost amongst African-Americans but all Americans. If I am correct, and this is in fact their mission, then mission accomplished. This truly could be a resurrection in the world of music we haven't seen since Caucasians discovered Little Richard five decades or so ago.

The music had become sort of a defense mechanism to help African-Americans in the early twentieth century to get through some terrible hardships. Some survived this horrific era and some did not. The survivors came out of the ordeal stronger, wiser, and smarter, if not a bit on the justifiably cynical side. However, for having gone through it, they were ultimately better equipped for the next era, the era that ushered in Civil Rights and changed our great Nation, as we know it, for the better.

This music has been passed down through the ages. It is extremely obvious a lot of research and study went into the conception of Carolina Chocolate Drops' music, and especially this record. However, most importantly, and as mentioned earlier, my two favorite and arguably the two most important ingredients to anything of substance, the Heart and the Soul prevailed in the conception of this artistically historic masterpiece.

Carolina Chocolate Drops are Rhiannon Giddens, Justin Robinson, and Dom Flemons, and are and will be for a long time, a powerful force in the world of roots music. This is roots music at its rootsiest and it must be heard.

`Rebel' Rod says you had better do what ever it takes to get this record in your collection. I promise, you will not regret it.