Album Notes

Sankofa Strings came into being as a result of the first Black Banjo Gathering, held in Boone, NC in April 2005. Sule and Dom flew in from Arizona, and when they hooked up with Rhiannon, they knew great music was to be made! Two months later, in Arizona, they played their first gigs, and as they say, the rest was history. Four months later, after moving from AZ to NC, Dom joined Rhiannon and NC native Justin Robinson to from the Carolina Chocolate Drops, another proud exponent of the Black String Band Revival.
The term Colored Aristocracy goes back to at least the 1850s, in the title of a book on the Black elite of St. Louis, MO. In 1899 that phrase became the title of a cakewalk number. In 1936, the Rich family recorded their now-famous string band tune of the same name. The tune harkens back to days of hardship, pride in ourselves and hope for better times to come. Sankofa!