Carolina Chocolate Drops on Prairie Home Companion

posted by Lani Stack
Flynn Marketing Coordinator, Editor

I didn't know about the Carolina Chocolate Drops until earlier this spring, when we booked them for a FlynnSpace show (Friday, January 11, 2008 at 8 pm). Now, I seem to hear about them everywhere....

My friend Audrey, a North Carolina native, sang the praises of this "old-timey string band" from her home state at at recent "Stitch & Bitch" gathering, as we knitted and purled to bluegrass music by some of her other favorite artists. Not long after, I heard that their fantastic CD, Dona Got a Ramblin' Mind, was slated for re-release on June 26, with new artwork and two additional tracks. Then, on Saturday, I tuned into NPR's Prairie Home Companion and was delighted to discover that they were the show's musical guests, performing four songs: Corn Bread and Butter Beans, Georgia Buck, Hit 'Em Up, and Sourwood Mountain—as well as a Powdermilk Biscuit "Dance-Off" with Garrison Keillor and the Shoes.

If you were away from the radio enjoying the lovely early summer weather, or didn't catch the show for whatever other reason, you can listen to the entire broadcast, or just the relevant segments (1, 2, and 5), on Prairie Home Companion's excellent website. If you discover that you love this band—called the "hottest thing to hit the old-time music community in decades" by NPR's Weekend Edition—as much as we do here at the Flynn, you can get your tickets for their January FlynnSpace performance through the FlynnTix Regional Box Office on or after Tuesday, August 14. (To get a head-start, find out how to become a Flynn member and order your tickets as early as Friday, July 27!)

photograph of the Carolina Chocolate Drops courtesy of the artists
photograph of the Carolina Chocolate Drops in a "Dance Off" with Garrison Keillor and the Shoes: credit Andrea McAvey for Prairie Home Companion