After the breakup of the legendary and scene-shifting Carolina Chocolate Drops around 2015, Rhiannon Giddens spread her wings as an artist, making wide-ranging albums to universal acclaim and winning both a MacArthur Fellowship and a Pulitzer Prize. Her identity as an old-time fiddle and banjo player was set aside for a time, even as her thought leadership changed the national conversation around race and country music. This April however, she brought back the string band sound that launched the Drops with co-founding member Justin Robinson on fiddle, with their album What Did The Blackbird Say To The Crow? It came out on the eve of her new Biscuits & Banjos festival in Durham, NC, where the CCD got their start, which included the first reunion concert in ages. I’ll have a longer report about that weekend soon, but for now, we celebrate that event and album with several tracks in this hour. Also, new singles from Appalachian Road Show, Aaron Burdett, and the Kody Norris Show.
Benton Flippen - Durham's Bull
Appalachian Road Show - Della Jane's Heart
Magic Tuber String Band - A Dance On A Sunday Night
Laurie Lewis and Linda Ronstadt - Pretty Bird
Aaron Burdett - Honeybees
Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson - John Henry
Leyla McCalla - Heart of Gold
Taj Mahal - Candy Man
Don Vappie & Jazz Creole - La Ville Jacmel
Jimmy Martin and the Osborne Brothers - Chalk Up Another One
Del McCoury - Other Shore
Alison Brown - Choro Nuff
Joe Mullins and RR - Time Adds Up
Kody Norris Show - In The Circle
The New Coon Creek Girls - Fireball Mail
Sophie Wellington - Hy Patillon
New Grass Revival - A Good Woman's Love
