The Carolina Chocolate Drops' and New York–based gypsy punk band Luminescent Orchestrii's performance of "Knockin'," off the groups' recently released self-titled, four-song Nonesuch EP, has been named Song of the Day by NPR. "Knockin," writes NPR's Eric Luecking, "is the perfect song to capture the two groups' individual and combined gifts."

Luecking goes on to cite beatboxer Adam Matta, a newly made member of Carolina Chocolate Drops, as "adept at vocal turntablism as well as keeping a steady rhythm, and in live performances, Rhiannon Giddens and Matta scat as Matta emulates a trumpet perfectly."

"Clearly, these sounds are familiar to the Luminescent Orchestrii, whose members wrote the song," says Luecking, "but 'Knockin'' offers a new way to hear the Carolina Chocolate Drops. The group has long bridged the sounds of American roots music for modern audiences, but between 'Knockin'' and 'Hit 'Em Up Style,'"—which is featured both on the group's Grammy-winning Nonesuch debut album, Genuine Negro Jig, and, in a new version, on the EP—"it's exciting to hear Giddens sing with so much verve and conviction."

Read more and listen to the Song of the Day at npr.org. To pick up a copy of the EP on vinyl, CD, or MP3, head to the Nonesuch Store now.

Carolina Chocolate Drops perform a private event at The Cat's Den at the University of Kentucky in Lexington tonight, for attendees of the Symposium of Affrilachia. They return to their home state of North Carolina this weekend for a performance at Triad State in Greensboro to benefit the city's youth chorus choirs. For more information on the tour, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.