Guardian Music — Cherry Hinton HallNatalie Merchant has changed direction again. It's little more than two months since she toured Britain, backed by just acoustic guitars and a cello, reworking songs from her epic Leave Your Sleep album, on which she performed with ... more info

The Late Greats — We round out this list of my favorite so far with: Carolina Chocolate Drops’s “Genuine Negro Jig” and Marco Benevento’s “Between The Needles & Nightfall”. CCD play old-time Jug music.  Complete with Jugs, banjos, violins, kazoos, hand pe... more info

MTV.com News — Kid Cudi performed hours after being arrested in New YorkBy Becca Birckhead Jay-Z Photo: C. Flanigan/ WireImage MANCHESTER, Tennessee — There was mud, rain, oppressive heat, a set by a world-beating rap superstar (Jay-Z), a classic soul i... more info

LargeHeartedBoy — Today's free and legal mp3 downloads: Billy Corgan: 2009-08-31, Los Angeles [mp3,ogg,flac] "Femme Fatale (Velvet Underground cover)" [mp3] other Billy Corgan posts at Largehearted Boy Carolina Chocolate Drops: 2010-03-14, New York [mp3,ogg,flac] "Sho... more info

Live Daily — (LiveDaily.com) Discovery is the key to SXSW. Not that anything has to come out of the blue or be completely stumbled upon, but there has to be an element of surprise. more info

Rolling Stone — The Carolina Chocolate Drops — banjo player Dom Flemons and fiddlers Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson (they all sing and juggle guitar, Autoharp and percussion) — reignite a vintage outsider music: the early-20th-century jump and lamentation ... more info

LargeHeartedBoy — Today's free and legal mp3 downloads: Carolina Chocolate Drops: 2009-10-02, Ann Arbor [mp3,ogg,flac] Carolina Chocolate Drops: "Sourwood Mountain" [mp3] Carolina Chocolate Drops: 2009-10-02, Ann Arbor [mp3,ogg,flac] Carolina Chocolate Drops: "Peace B... more info

Chicago Sun-Times, IL — The Carolina Chocolate Drops have a Chicago flavor. more info

The 9513 Country Music — It’d be a shame if the Carolina Chocolate Drops were heard as merely an academic undertaking rather than the damn good pickers, fiddlers, jug blowers, and singers they actually are. The band consists of three African American musicians trained... more info

The 9513 Country Music — Rockabilly legend Dale Hawkins passed away on Feb. 13 following a long battle with colon cancer. He was 73. In yesterday’s list of new releases, I missed Carolina Chocolate Drops‘ Genuine Negro Jig ( Amazon | iTunes | MySpace ). As always, let me... more info