In a Chocolate Drop’s quest, place transcended race

“….For [Rhiannon Giddens, a founder of the Carolina Chocolate Drops] it was never so much about race as it was about place. ‘I’m a mixed-race person,’ she says, ‘so I grew up exploring…. I knew there was Indian in the family, so I joined [a drumming group] in high school and explored that side of it.

” ‘And you know, none of it felt quite right. Where I found my identity was when I realized that I’m from North Carolina. It’s not so much that I’m black or I’m white or I’m Indian or whatever. I’m Southern. And furthermore I’m a North Carolinian…. And it kind of eclipses the race stuff. It’s like this is who I am, this is where I come from….’ ”

— From “Patsy Cline, Allison Krauss, and Now…Rhiannon Giddens” by Malcolm Jones at the Daily Beast (March 8)