I really tried to pull something together for this week. I know it's early in a project like this, and that's an important time to set a rhythm, keep things moving. On the 24th, Putin ordered an invasion and siege, with the intent of taking control of, Ukraine. This is a labor of love, not a labor of me getting paid and keeping food on the table. So with extra things happening, I had to prioritize my paid work over this. And I really am sorry about that. I know that a lot of folks could probably use something a little lighter to focus on right now. But that's not me. You should probably have gotten the picture by now: my love for country music stems, in large part, from the dark, seedy underbelly of it. And nobody needs that. I thought about doing protest songs, war songs, songs about peace...none of it felt right. What does feel right? If you click HERE or on the sunflowers up above, you'll be taken to the donations page for Voices of Children, a Ukrainian charity dev
And I’m already back. Who’d’ve thunk? Since I took care of all the rigmarole in the last entry, let’s not fuck around with anything: today we’re talking about Carolina Chocolate Drops . I was originally going to include Rhiannon Giddens in this, but after musing on it, I honestly think she just deserves her own article at a later date. It’s not fair to her to write an article about a band she was in 8 years ago and have her as a passing note when she has more than established her own country sound in the interim. Same incredible voice, but the vibe is all her own. So Carolina Chocolate Drops. A group of multi-instrumentalist Black artists and vocalists, doing old-time music, americana, and classic country. And already, I can here some Nice White Person™ clacking away at their keyboard, ready to tell me how CCD isn’t really country. 1: I refer you back to the article by Elamin Abdelmahmoud I referenced in the Charley Pride entry and 2: if you really want to quibble about whether a