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GREENSBORO — The Carolina Chocolate Drops had high hopes for 2010.

Earlier this year, the trio of young African Americans specializing in old-time string-band music released its second album, "Genuine Negro Jig."

"We hope this is the year we become known to a larger segment of the population," band member and Greensboro native Rhiannon Giddens said in a January interview.

That's bound to happen, now that "Genuine Negro Jig" has received a Grammy nomination — the group's first — for best traditional folk album.

"It was quite a wonderful surprise," Giddens said Friday from Michigan, where the band was on tour. "It's still kind of surreal."

Two days before, Giddens and band members Justin Robinson and Dom Flemons were traveling to their hotel after a concert when their manager e-mailed the news.

"It's a great honor, of course," Giddens said. "It means people in the industry know our music, and that always feels really good."

Giddens describes the album as a mixture of music — "traditional dance music, fiddle, banjo and jug music, a ballad, a little bit of modern stuff."

It was its first album on the major Nonesuch label.

It's been a busy month for the band. After playing dates in Michigan, Georgia and Tennessee, it expects to be back in North Carolina today, performing in Asheville, Charlotte and Raleigh through Saturday.

It already has a full plate for early 2011.

Nonesuch will release its second Carolina Chocolate Drops record on Jan. 25. The band collaborated on the four-song extended play record with the New York-based Romanian gypsy punk band Luminescent Orchestrii.

The band then has another tour that starts in February.

When the 53rd annual Grammy Awards are given out on Feb. 13 in Los Angeles, "Genuine Negro Jig" will compete against albums by Ricky Skaggs, Maria Muldaur, Luther Dickinson & The Sons of Mudboy, and The John Hartford Stringband.

The band has a gig scheduled in Maine that night. So, it doesn't know yet whether it can attend the ceremony.

"I would like to be able to, but we have commitments," Giddens said. "It's a good opportunity, even if you don't win, to see people."

Contact Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane at 373-5204 or dawn.kane@news-record.com