The Carolina Chocolate Drops will perform at Monmouth University\u2019s Pollak Theatre on February 17 at 8 p.m. Opening act is M. Shanghai String Band featuring Asbury Park resident Richard Morris.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a sound that\u2019s as old as the hills \u2014 even if, technically, the genre known as \u201cAmericana\u201d has only existed as a Grammy-recognized category for two years.<\/p>\n
For the Grammy winning, North Carolina-based troupe of troubadours known as The Carolina Chocolate Drops<\/strong>, the specialty of the house is the African American string and jug-band sound that helped transform American popular music during the radio-and-phonograph era of the 1920s and 30s.<\/p>\n In a little more than five years since playing their first impromptu gig, the Drops have topped the Billboard bluegrass charts (with their 2010 debut release Genuine Negro Jig<\/em><\/strong>) and demonstrated the ongoing relevance of legacy sounds in an anything-goes musical landscape \u2014 an approach that\u2019s found them mixing fiddles, kazoos, and banjos with elements of hip-hop and alt-country.<\/p>\n On the night of Friday, February 17, the three vocalists and multi-instrumentalists of The Carolina Chocolate Drops (\u201cstrong and sometimes dangerous\u201d singer Rhiannon Giddens<\/strong>, Dom Flemons<\/strong>, and newest member Hubby Jenkins<\/strong>) are joined by cellist Leyla McCalla<\/strong> in their first visit to the Pollak Theatre<\/strong>, on the West Long Branch campus of Monmouth University<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Presented by the Center for the Arts at Monmouth as part of the 2011-2012 Performing Arts series, the 8 p.m. concert arrives just days in advance of the release date for Leaving Eden<\/em>, the current configuration\u2019s recorded debut on Nonesuch Records, and a highly anticipated set that finds the Chocolate Drops working with sought-after producer Buddy Miller<\/strong> (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Robert Plant) on a set of originals and covers that includes the spotlight track \u201cCountry Girl.\u201d<\/p>\n Opening for The Carolina Chocolate Drops will be one of the hottest acts on the region\u2019s burgeoning roots-music scene \u2014 the Brooklyn-based M Shanghai String Band<\/strong>, a celebrated ten-to-eleven piece combo known for performing \u201cOpry style\u201d around a single microphone (as well as having taken their name from the Chinese restaurant where they first convened to practice). Featuring the mandolin mastery of Monmouth County\u2019s own Richard Morris<\/strong>, and co-fronted by guitarist and songwriter Matthew Schickele<\/strong> \u2014 son of PDQ Bach professor and past Pollak Theatre performer Peter Schickele \u2014 the Shanghai collective offers up a \u201cone from Column A, one from Column B\u201d musical menu that Time Out NY described as \u201cvigorous, heartfelt, acoustic country with all the fixins!\u201d<\/p>\n Check out this video of the Carolina Chocolate Drops:<\/strong> Appearance on CNN<\/a><\/p>\n