CC Drops to Nonesuch

Per Tim Duffy, founder of the band's original home at Music Maker Relief Foundation:

Nonesuch Records has just signed North Carolina-based trio the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Affectionately knows as "The Drops", they are a young string band in the centuries-old Piedmont banjo and fiddle musical tradition. The group's members-Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, and Justin Robinson-all trade duties as singers and swap instruments, too. The band, which has toured continuously since its formation in 2005, has several U.S. concert dates this spring before taking a summer sabbatical during which Giddens is expecting her first child. They will resume touring in the fall. Their label debut is scheduled for early 2010.

One institution deserves another, no? Congratulations. Click here for Rick Cornell's Nov. 2005 story, which the Drops acknowledged as the spark of their career last summer from the outdoor stage of the N.C. Museum of Art.