''Hmmm, someone's cruising for a bruising.''

That was my first thought a couple of months ago when I opened an envelope from a record company containing some advance music and saw a photo of three young African-American adults dressed in what looked like a thrift-shop-chic version of juke-joint clothes. The title of their recording: Genuine Negro Jig.

I resisted the urge to toss the disc immediately in the discard pile.

When time came to listen to the disc, I braced myself for a heavy dose of irony and racial politics. Instead, I heard this: A solo keening violin whose notes hung almost poetically in space, both lyrical and dense as summertime heat in North Carolina. After a few measures, the violin was augmented by shaking bones, a small chattering percussion instrument. Then a banjo kicked in and the Carolina Chocolate Drops ambled along, proudly rural yet with virtuosic authority.

I sent the irony patrol back to their barracks and settled in for the rest of the disc. Twelve impressive tunes later, I began to investigate. Genuine Negro Jig is the Carolina Chocolate Drops' third recording; they take their name from the Depression era string band, the Tennessee Chocolate Drops, who were a big hit on the Southern black music scene of the time. In fact, the CCD's music is drawn mostly from the North Carolina Piedmont string band tradition of the early 20th century. The trio, banjo player Dom Flemons, and violinists Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson (they all play various small percussion instruments and sing) met at a black banjo festival in North Carolina five years ago, and were taken under wing by Joe Thompson, a charming man then in his '80s, who just happens to be one of the surviving masters of the Piedmont string band tradition.

The group began playing together at town squares and farmer's markets in North Carolina. Festival gigs followed; so, too, did an appearance in Denzel Washington's 2007 film, The Great Debaters. They recorded Dona Got a Rambling Mind (Music Maker) and a self titled disc in 2008. The Drops developed their repertoire from traditional string band music, some blues standards--and some covers.  Genuine Negro Jig contains a fiery cover of Blu Cantrell's ''Hit 'Em Up Style,'' an affecting take on Tom Waits' ''Trampled Rose,'' and a beautiful a capella rendition of the English ballad ''Reynadine.''