Carolina Chocolate Drops

Their modus operandi has been the fine reinterpretation of early 20th-century traditional American music — the kind of stuff written and performed by black musicians most often in the deeply segregated South. The Carolina Chocolate Drops (who harken immediately back to the Tennessee Chocolate Drops) have dropped three fantastic albums that remind us in the present day how important early American music remains. You should certainly not sleep on 2010’s Genuine Negro Jig (complete with the whopping one-two “Hit ‘Em Up Style” and “Cornbread and Butterbeans”), but do check out the group’s latest album, Leaving Eden. Rhiannon Giddens, the band’s frontwoman and last remaining founding member, is as soulful and energetic as ever on this outing. Opener “Riro’s House” distills the early 1900s vibe in ways you could never have conceived. (Sandy)