Carolina Chocolate Drops

If you've ever considered banjo music to be an American creation, you don't know the banjo. In fact, if you think of the banjo as an inherently Southern instrument, you don't know the banjo. If you think that the banjo can teach us nothing about American history, Southern culture and modern race relations, then you certainly don't know the banjo.

And you’ve probably never heard the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

For those of you like me who are not formally trained musicologists, here's a super-quick summation of the first 400 years of banjo history:

The banjo is almost as symbolic of U.S. culture as the Washington Monument, and, just like the obelisk, it was created by people from the African continent.