Rhiannon Giddens & Dom Flemons/carolinachocolatedrops.com

When was the last time an out-of-town musician talked with authority on a Twin Cities stage about Koerner, Ray & Glover, Bob Dylan, Willie & the Bees and Pop Wagner? Dom Flemons of the Carolina Chocolate Drops has gone to school on Minnesota music just as his group has done with historic styles of African American music.

In the group's return engagement at the Cedar Cultural Center Wednesday in front of an enthusiastic sell-out crowd, the revamped Chocolate Drops were chatty, charming and musically impressive — on vocals, banjo, fiddle, guitar, cello, mandolin, drum, harmonica, jug, bones, you name it.

Co-founders Dom Flemons and Rhiannon Giddens like to give you the backstory on songs, instruments, traditions and other topics such as all the cities on this leg of the tour.

She even gave shout-outs to her high school (she did the Unicorns chant) and her college (Oberlin).

Flemons clearly seemed comfortable and familiar with the Cedar, where CCD have played before, and dazzled with his knowledge of West Bank music figures of old. I half expected him to launch into a monolog entitled the News from Snoose Boulevard.

Instead, the attentive, dance-happy crowd was treated to lessons in minstrel music, old-time fiddle tunes, post-World War I blues, Gaelic fiddling and the like for 105 minutes. There were tunes associated with Ethel Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson and Jimmie Rodgers. The Grammy-winning North Carolina group also offered its near-hit, a reworking of the 2001 Blu Cantrell R&B triumph "Hit 'Em Up Style," a spirited treatment of the Johnny Cash/June Carter classic "Jackson" and the requested "Cornbread and Butterbeans," which had the same tune as Bob Wills' "Take Me Back to Tulsa."

Newcomer Hubby Jenkins was a superb addition on vocals and multiple instruments. Leyla McCalla's cello added texture and bottom.

The highly entertaining, educational and enriching Chocolate Drops would be a smart addition to one of the Twin Cities' multi-act festivals later this summer.