Rhiannon Gidden & Justin Robinson

Biography

Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson are founding members of the Grammy-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, a Black string band that emerged from the progressive music collective Sankofa Strings. The duo met in 2005 at the Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, North Carolina, where they were among the few young musicians present. Giddens, classically trained in opera at Oberlin Conservatory, and Robinson, a multi-disciplinary scholar with degrees in linguistics and forestry, joined forces with multi-instrumentalist Dom Flemons to form the Carolina Chocolate Drops, which gained widespread critical acclaim with their 2010 Grammy Award-winning album Genuine Negro Jig. After pursuing solo careers and other projects for approximately a decade, Giddens and Robinson reunited in 2025 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the band's founding.

Both artists have established themselves as significant figures in American music history and cultural preservation. Giddens is a two-time Grammy Award winner, MacArthur Foundation Fellowship recipient (2017), and Pulitzer Prize winner in Music (2023) for her opera Omar, based on the life of an enslaved Muslim man in 19th-century South Carolina. Robinson has pursued parallel interests in botany, culinary history, and musicology, serving as a founding member of the Earthseed Land Cooperative and board member of the Conservation Trust for North Carolina. Their collaborative album What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow (2025) represents a return to their roots, featuring 18 tracks of North Carolina fiddle and banjo music recorded outdoors at historically significant locations, accompanied by the natural soundscape of cicada broods that had not emerged simultaneously since 1803.

The album serves as a tribute to their late mentor Joe Thompson and fellow Piedmont folk legend Etta Baker, grounding their work in the rich cultural traditions of North Carolina's Black string band heritage. Through their music and scholarship, Giddens and Robinson have worked to restore Black musicians' presence at the foundation of American folk music and to challenge narratives that have historically excluded African American contributions to the nation's musical traditions.

Fun Facts

• The recording of What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow captured an extraordinary natural phenomenon: two different broods of cicadas emerged simultaneously during the outdoor recording sessions, an event that had not occurred since 1803, creating a once-in-a-lifetime soundscape that became integral to the album's sound.
• Justin Robinson played one of Joe Thompson's personal fiddles during the recording of What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow—a significant honor, as Robinson states he would never touch the instrument during Thompson's lifetime unless tuning it for him.
• Robinson holds degrees in both linguistics and forestry and is a founding member of the Earthseed Land Cooperative, embodying his philosophy that botany, culinary history, and musicianship are interconnected disciplines about uncovering stories.
• The Carolina Chocolate Drops reunited in 2025 to mark the 20th anniversary of their founding, launching their reunion tour with an appearance at the Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, North Carolina—the exact location where Giddens and Robinson first met in 2005.

Musical Connections

Mentors/Influences

• Joe Thompson - Octogenarian folk fiddler from Mebane, North Carolina, who became a beloved mentor to the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Thompson provided informal coaching and helped crystallize for Giddens the understanding that Black musicians were present at the birth of American folk music. Robinson and Giddens learned many tunes from Thompson's repertoire. (What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow features multiple Joe Thompson compositions including 'Hook and Line,' the first tune Thompson ever learned) [2005 onwards; Thompson was a 2007 National Heritage Fellowship recipient]
• Etta Baker - Late Piedmont-region folk legend and musical hero from whom Giddens and Robinson learned by listening to recordings of her playing. Baker's pieces are featured on their collaborative album. (What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow includes several of Etta Baker's pieces) [Learned through recordings; featured on 2025 album]

Key Collaborators

• Dom Flemons - Multi-instrumentalist and musicologist who formed the Carolina Chocolate Drops with Giddens and Robinson. Flemons played guitar in the original trio. (Carolina Chocolate Drops albums including Genuine Negro Jig (2010 Grammy winner); Sankofa Strings) [2005 onwards]
• Francesco Turrisi - Italian multi-instrumentalist with whom Giddens has collaborated on multiple albums (Two collaborative albums on Nonesuch Records) [Multiple releases]
• Silk Road Ensemble - Giddens collaborated with the Silk Road Project/Ensemble on music projects (American Railroad album released November 2024)
• Joseph 'joebass' DeJarnette - Co-producer of What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow alongside Giddens (What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow (2025))

Artists Influenced

• Contemporary folk and Americana musicians - Through their work with the Carolina Chocolate Drops and individual projects, Giddens and Robinson have influenced the broader understanding of Black contributions to American folk music traditions and inspired musicians to explore early Black Atlantic music (Giddens' recent book Go Back and Fetch It: Recovering Early Black Music in the Americas for Fiddle and Banjo (2025) presents 19 examples of early Black Atlantic music from the 1600s-1800s for contemporary musicians) [2005 onwards]

External Links

• Spotify
• Wikipedia