Finding an African-American string band nowadays is a chore, and one must venture to North Carolina to encounter this trio of traditionalists: Rhiannon Giddens (banjo, fiddle, voice), Justin Robinson (fiddle, voice) and Dom Flemons (guitar, banjo, jug, harmonica, snare, voice). Their music is rooted in the Carolinas Piedmont as well as Appalachia. The album's 16 tracks are band arrangements of such traditional tunes as "Starry Crown," "Short Life of Trouble," "Georgia Buck" and "Black Annie." —Philip Van Vleck