CONCERT PREVIEW
Carolina Chocolate Drops with Two Man Gentlemen Band. 8:30 p.m. Nov. 30. $20. Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Ave., Atlanta. 404-524-7354, www.variety-playhouse.com.
You might wonder if the members of the Carolina Chocolate Drops felt more pressure recording their current album, “Leaving Eden,” than on their previous albums.
After all, it was the first album the group had made since winning a Grammy in 2011 for best traditional folk album for “Genuine Negro Jig.”
With an honor like a Grammy comes the kind of notoriety that can create expectations. Certainly, there is more awareness of the group and its updated take on the string-band style of music played by African-American musicians in the mid- to late 1800s.
But Rhiannon Giddens, who sings and plays fiddle and banjo in the group, said the Grammy had no impact on the sessions for “Leaving Eden” with producer Buddy Miller.
Instead, the Carolina Chocolate Drops were too busy figuring out how to be a band all over again. Fiddle player Justin Robinson had bowed out in February 2011, having grown weary of the group’s busy touring life.
“It was more like we have to find a new band lineup and we have to record a new CD,” Giddens said. “That’s what we were focusing on.”
Giddens and the other founding member of the group, multi-instrumentalist-singer Dom Fleming, were still working out how Robinson’s replacement, multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins, was going to fit in.
By the time the group started recording, an advantage to having a new third member had become apparent.
“I think we felt a bit more freedom on this one because we were kind of cut loose from the past a bit … with this new lineup,” Giddens said. “We were just like, let’s see where it leads us. … We weren’t really framed by the stuff we had done for the last six years.”
The completed album suggests Giddens, Fleming and Jenkins found a strong chemistry in the studio. “Leaving Eden” continues the group’s tradition of making spirited music that honors the rich history of the string band form, but has more than enough of a modern attitude (as well as some contemporary musical touches) to keep the songs from sounding like relics from the past.
The group works up some serious energy on “Ruby, Are You Mad at Your Man?” (one of several songs where Giddens, a singer trained in opera, delivers a standout vocal performance), “Run Mountain” and “I Truly Understand That You Love Another Man.”
Although “Leaving Eden” is primarily an uptempo effort, there are a couple of lovely ballads — the title track and the a cappella “Pretty Bird” — that help give the album a well-rounded feel.
Fleming, Giddens and Robinson originally came together after they met at the Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, N.C., in 2005. As the group built a following through extensive touring, it released a string of albums before “Genuine Negro Jig,” the group’s first release under a deal with Nonesuch Records.
With the release of “Leaving Eden” the group has returned to its busy touring schedule this fall. Giddens said their song selection varies depending on the setting and audience, but she promised a mix of material from across the Carolina Chocolate Drops’ career.
“We don’t really tailor it too much to specific shows. We just play whatever we’re feeling at the moment,” Giddens said.
