The Carolina Chocolate Drops have been on a roll on their current tour of the US, playing sold-out sets along the way, including two last night at Floyd Country Store in Roanoke, Virginia. They return to their home state of North Carolina today to perform another sold-out gig, at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro. Tune in to North Carolina Public Radio station WUNC's The State of Things live at 12 PM ET to hear the band chat with host Frank Stasio about their recent Nonesuch debut album, Genuine Negro Jig, and what lays ahead. You can tune in live online here or listen again in the archives after 3 PM ET at wunc.org.

Durham Herald-Sun writer Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan says Genuine Negro Jig "is as good a way as any to meet the stylings of Justin Robinson, Dom Flemons and Rhiannon Giddens." She cites the album track "Cornbread and Butterbeans" as one that "sticks to your gut long after the sounds of fiddle, banjo, jug and bones have ceased." Baumgartner Vaughan goes on to say that the music from the Carolina-based band "has a way of transporting you to another place and time but also make you live for the moment as you watch them play and the people dance ... We're lucky to claim them as our own." Read more at heraldsun.com.

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The band is featured in an extensive profile in Durham's Independent Weekly, which calls them "the country's premier black string band." The article examines the group's roots at the first Black Banjo Gathering five years ago and all the success they have enjoyed since.

"Now, the Carolina Chocolate Drops are unquestionably the most prominent African-American string band in the nation," writes Spencer Griffith. "But the question that remains is when—or if—they'll be able to lay claim to that title without the racial qualifier—and, to an extent, the string band qualifier, too. That is, can they just be a great band making great music?" Griffith goes on to answer that question: "The talent and versatility displayed on Genuine Negro Jig—along with the Chocolate Drops' ability to educate while entertaining live—suggest the answer is yes."

There's much more in the article at indyweek.com.

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The Charlotte Observer's Courtney Devores talks with Flemons about the banjo and its roots, just in time for last week's Black Banjo Gathering Reunion at Appalachian State University, which the whole group attended, and marked the five-year anniversary of the Gathering where the band first came together. You'll find the article at charlotteobserver.com.

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The Raleigh News & Observer's David Menconi reports from the South by Southwest music conference and festival in Austin, where the band played a couple weeks back, that, among the myriad bands attending and performing the event, the Carolina Chocolate Drops were "one of the most talked-about groups." Menconi spoke with the band in Austin and says that "the best thing the Chocolate Drops have going for them is freshness, an ability to make old music sound and feel relevant. While they're not the only current musicians attempting to bring old-time music to life, they might have the most to offer." Read the article at newsobserver.com.

You can watch the band's SXSW performance for radio station KUT's stage at the Austin Hilton at sxsw.kut.org.

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There's also a feature on the band in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, previewing the band's show at The Showroom tomorrow night. "They have taken traditional music and given it a contemporary feel," says Showroom director Stephen Long. "When the guy played the jug, he added a hip-hop beat to it. I had never heard anyone else do anything like it." Read more at goupstate.com.

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For information on the next stops on the band's tour, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour. To pick up a copy of Genuine Negro Jig with seven exclusive live bonus tracks, head to the Nonesuch Store.