#malcolm parson

Come Love Come by Rhiannon Giddens from the album Freedom Highway - Video by Harvey K. Robinson

Banjo music first crossed over to whites in mid-1800s, with stars like Bill Sweeney, who performed in minstrel shows. The Drops perform a lot of songs from that era. They’ve also inserted a few contemporary pieces, including one by Tom Waits, as well as a crowd-pleasing re-think on Blu Cantrell’s hip-hop hit, “Hit ’Em Up Style.” “We were playing black high schools to teach them about this history, and when you come there with banjos and fiddles the kids think, ‘What the hell is this?’” Giddens says. “We wanted to find a song they could relate to.”