With so many bands laying claim one way or another to the now fashionable label of "roots music", simply because they're happening to play rock and roll like it was supposed to be played, it's awfully refreshing to come across music that is genuinely one of the tap roots of a good chunk of what's played today. What's really interesting is how the stripped down nature of these songs gives them an edge even the most basic of rock and roll lacks today.

There's a quality to this music that only seems to come about when songs are played in a back porch state of mind. By that, I mean when people get together for the love of playing and no other reason, and play anything that comes to hand that can contribute to the song. Back porch music is straight from the heart of the singer to the heart of the listener, without interference from any of the normal accoutrements of the music business.

It's simple without being simplistic in that it speaks of things that are important to the people singing and the people listening without innuendo or conceit. To the ears of today's sophisticated audience, the songs on Dona Got a Ramblin' Mind may seem primitive due to their lack of sophistication and production values, but that's what makes this music so wonderful as far as I'm concerned.

What's great about the Carolina Chocolate Drops is their willingness to simply be the folk singing and performing the music instead of letting themselves become more important than what is being sung and played. What you get when listening to their disc is the music played as it has been for the last hundred years, and hopefully as it will be now for the next hundred years.

This disc is produced by the Music Maker Relief Foundation, whose mission is to not just preserve and ensure the future of the roots of American music, but to raise funds for those elderly performers of this music who no longer have the means to support themselves. Not only do they assure dignity and quality of life for the pioneers of the music we all love today, but ensure they get the recognition they deserve.

Whereas people like the Carolina Chocolate Drops represent the next generation of musicians, Music Maker also produces albums with people and acts who have been playing unnoticed across the South for decades. These are the people, both black and white, whose creativity and passion are the real roots of the music we listen to today. Without them, it's doubtful any of what we hear and love would exist to this day.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops are an important step forward in guaranteeing some of the best music of the past isn't relegated to a few memories, but continues to be a living, growing, and evolving tradition. Not only are they a reminder of who came before, but they are also the present and, hopefully, future of American music.