Bluegrass in New York

The LA Times review

For all its associations with hip-hop, beatboxing is a pretty old-timey approach to percussion, and the band spends much of this very fresh-sounding album aligning itself with traditional values. “Best kind of food is made by hand / The only place to get it is from the land,” Giddens declares in “Country Girl”; later, in the title track, she laments the death of industry in a small North Carolina town. Yet the attitudes here don’t feel received; they never arrive free of the sense that they’ve been examined thoroughly. The result is a rarity in the Chocolate Drops’ world: roots music as useful as it is beautiful.

The Washington Post review

The evolution could, in part, be the result of a new lineup: When Justin Robinson left the group last year, the other two original members, Dom Flemons and Giddens, brought on guitarist-singer Hubby Jenkins. But on “Leaving Eden,” there are three musicians where before there was just one: Jenkins, as well as beatboxer Adam Matta and cellist Leyla McCalla… The originals, new songs written with a nod to old-time, are standout. The compositions show that the Drops are more than just great mimics (a rare criticism), or even just great string band players (a common observation), but artists capable of significantly updating and shifting the music they love.

Mother Jones:

Leaving Eden continues the Drops’ M.O. of reviving old tunes, often with a black twist. You’ll find quite a variety here, from the backwoods-y vibe of Etta James’ “West End Blues” to an adaptation of “Mahalla,” a slack-key instrumental by South African spoon-slide player Hannes Coetzee, to Ben Curry’s goofy “Boodle-De-Bum-Bum” and “Run Mountain,” a traditional that Flemons sings in such a way as makes me want to go to the back door to see if the chickens have got out.