A couple of the characters likely to dominate the foreground of this story are Joe Thompson and Rhiannon Giddens of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. They represent the opposite sides of the generational spectrum: Joe is 86, Rhiannon 29; Joe has an eighth grade education, Rhiannon a graduate degree. Despite their differences, their mutual love for old time string band music has brought them together. 

As new traditionalists like Giddens and others wage a battle against time, they also find themselves swimming upstream against the cultural currents of both hip-hop, and Country Music Television. Indeed, they encounter the prejudices of white and black alike. Imagine being the only black face at a bluegrass festival! As one black musician puts it, “there’s a real clear division about what’s black music and what’s white music and it doesn’t just come from whites. There’s a very clear notion among blacks that anything with a mandolin or a banjo is them.”

Part of The Chocolate Drops mission is to break down these stereotypes through education.  Though the audience for old-time music is largely white, they seek to reach the black community by performing an educational program at inner-city schools. While in the Twin Cities, the Drops will perform educational programs for Minneapolis youngsters at Webster Arts Magnet and Elizabeth Hall International schools.  Another way the band get their music before a black audience is to play on the streets of downtown Raleigh, NC at rush hour. As one of the Chocolate Drops, Justin Robinson, says, “we want folks to know that its ok to like something other than hip-hop, that there’s more than one way to be black.”