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Rhiannon Giddens

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Rhiannon Giddens
Rhiannon Giddens (born February 21, 1977) is an American musician. She is a founding member of the country, blues and old-time music band Carolina Chocolate Drops, where she is the lead singer, fiddle player, and banjo player. Giddens is a native of Greensboro, North Carolina, an alumna of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, and a 2000 graduate of Oberlin Conservatory at Oberlin College, where she studied opera. In addition to her work with the Grammy-winning Chocolate Drops, Giddens has released two solo albums: Tomorrow Is My Turn (2015) and Freedom Highway (2017). Her latest album, There Is No Other, is a collaboration with Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi released in May 2019. She will also be appearing on a new Smithsonian Folkways collection documenting Mike Seeger's final trip through Appalachia in 2009, Just Around The Bend: Survival and Revival in Southern Banjo Styles – Mike Seeger’s Last Documentary, which is planned for release in late September 2019.
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Born
1977-02-21
Birth Place
United_States
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Musicmixonline.com

Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi

They’re Calling Me Home, the new release from former Carolina Chocolate Drops frontwoman Rhiannon Giddens and her partner, musician Francesco Turrisi, packs a soulful punch. Recorded while the couple were quarantining—actually stuck—in Dublin, Ireland, during the pandemic, the record echoes the artists’ childhood memories of Americana and Italian music, as well as the traditional tunes of their temporary home.
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Toledo, OHtoledo.com

Bernadette Peters, Rhiannon Giddens, and the 81st Nutcracker Headline Toledo Symphony and Toledo Ballet 2021/2022 Season

On Wednesday, June 9, 2021, the Toledo Symphony Orchestra (TSO) and Toledo Ballet, together as the Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA) announced its 2021/2022 performance season. Subscriptions are now available for purchase by calling the TAPA Box Office at 419.246.8000. Single tickets will go on sale to the general public on Monday, August 2. For a full listing of events, visit toledosymphony.com or toledoballet.com.
Greensboro, NCgreensboro.com

Rhiannon Giddens to pay tribute to Joan Baez on 'Kennedy Center Honors'

GREENSBORO — City native and Grammy Award winner Rhiannon Giddens will pay tribute to Joan Baez on Sunday during “The Kennedy Center Honors.”. Giddens, a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, will honor the legendary folksinger and activist during the special that will air at 8 p.m. Sunday on CBS and stream on Paramount+.
Musicstereophile.com

Rhiannon Giddens: Phoenix Rising

Giddens, 44, grew up in North Carolina's Piedmont, where her love of Roy Clark's playing inspired her to try the banjo. She quickly became curious about the role of Black musicians in Appalachian traditions. In 2005, she co-founded the Carolina Chocolate Drops to explore that issue. She is also a trained classical musician with a degree in opera from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Her recordings have won many awards, including a Grammy, and her vision of social equality through music gained her a MacArthur "genius" fellowship in 2018.
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Musicthebluegrasssituation.com

In a Hypnotic Video, Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi Add Life to “O Death”

Upon the release of their new record, They’re Calling Me Home, Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi delivered a beautiful music video for their rendition of the old American tune, “O Death.” The video features a series of scrolling paintings done by Maeve Clancy, an Irish artist who specializes in these “crankie rolls.” It’s a suitable vehicle for illustrating Giddens’ performance, as the images match not only the drama of the story but also the pacing of the lyrics and rhythms. In this hypnotic, pre-electricity style, “O Death” comes to life with its own magnetism. It’s the latest installment in the North Carolina native’s ongoing collaborations with Turrisi, a gifted Italian multi-instrumentalist.
Entertainmentoperawire.com

Rhiannon Giddens & John Adams Headline Ojai Festival 2021

The Ojai Music Festival has announced its 75th season, which is set to take place between Sept. 16-19, 2021. “The Ojai Music Festival has always done things differently with its special mix of casual manner and provocative programming. Ever since its inception in the days of Stravinsky and Copland, it has stood out among music festivals for its celebration of the new. I am honored to return as Music Director, and I am eager to introduce to our audiences a new generation of composers and performers who give a glimpse of what the future of creativity in music will be. Rhiannon Giddens, Víkingur Ólafsson, Carlos Simon, Gabriella Smith, Gabriela Ortiz, and Samuel Adams are just a few among many who will give this year’s Festival a jolt of energy that will resound in the magnificent setting of the Ojai Valley. It will be a treat not to be missed,” said John Adams, the 2021 Music Director of the Ojai Festival.
MusicPopMatters

Rhiannon Giddens Remains Timeless and Contemporary on ‘They’re Calling Me Home’

While introducing her recent Tiny Desk concert, recorded in the Dublin home of her partner and musical collaborator Francesco Turrisi, Rhiannon Giddens announced that she and Turrisi would not be playing any new songs. For her, when it came to expressing emotions spurred by the rapidly shifting conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic (the Tiny Desk concert was recorded during Ireland’s early lockdowns), “the old songs say it best.” Although this comment contextualizes that remotely-recorded concert and her new album with Turrisi, They’re Calling Me Home (also recorded during the pandemic), that devotion to “the old songs” characterizes the entirety of Giddens’ career up to this point.
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Musicshorefire.com

Rhiannon Giddens + Francesco Turrisi Unveil Cranky Roll Folk Art Video For Their Take on Traditional Song “O Death”

Rhiannon Giddens and Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi have unveiled a new video for their rendition of the traditional American folk song “O Death.” The video features illustrated vignettes of a story about death painted by Maeve Clancy, an Irish crankie roll artist. Giddens explains, “Crankies are a pre-electricity technology that pair a visual narrative, usually painted on a long piece of paper or cloth, 'cranked' by hand to the timing of the song.” Watch the new video HERE and read the Q&A at Garden & Gun, where Giddens discusses “O Death” and her latest album release, They’re Calling Me Home, which No Depression calls a “near perfect album:” https://gardenandgun.com/articles/listen-now-rhiannon-giddens-sings-o-death/
Elkins, WVwvpublic.org

From 2015: Rhiannon Giddens, The SteelDrivers, Jesse Milnes & Emily Miller, Sam Gleaves, and Alice Gerrard

This podcast episode features performances recorded in 2015 on the campus of Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia during the Augusta Heritage Festival. The Augusta Heritage Center offers a scholarly approach to preserving and teaching traditional arts, culture, music, and folklore. This week's look back to 2015 also features The SteelDrivers, Sam Gleaves, Jesse Milnes and Emily Miller, and Alice Gerrard.
Spindale, NCwncw.org

Thursday the 6th, 10am: Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi

If we can’t get our favorite, internationally revered, most absolutely brilliant musicians in for an in-person visit, the next best thing is a Zoom session between Spindale & their Dublin kitchen! Their new album is destined to be a Top 10 pick of 2021. They cover a lot of ground in their interview with WNCW’s Martin Anderson.
Musicwpr.org

Rhiannon Giddens On Mountain Stage

As pioneers of American roots music age and pass away, it is perennially asked: "who's going to fill their shoes?" as the late George Jones mournfully sang in 1985. For old-time music fans, that question of who would carry on the tradition was answered when The Carolina Chocolate Drops emerged in 2005.
Elkins, WVwvpublic.org

Listen: Rhiannon Giddens Has The Mountain Stage Song Of The Week

Grammy and MacArthur award winner Rhiannon Giddens plays songs from her T-Bone Burnett-produced solo debut on this week's special archive broadcast of Mountain Stage. Giddens is a founding member of the blues and old-time music stringband, Carolina Chocolate Drops. Here she performs "Black is the Color," from her album Tomorrow...
Lewiston, MEbates.edu

Bates to honor Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, artist Vanessa German, musician Rhiannon Giddens, and activist and lawyer Chase Strangio at Commencement

The 155th Bates College Commencement takes place on the college’s Coram Library Terrace on the Historic Quad on Thursday, May 27. In what promises to be another highly distinctive graduation — following last year’s virtual edition — Commencement 2021 will feature two complete, in-person ceremonies. In order to follow Maine...
MusicThe Guardian

Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi: They’re Calling Me Home review – big, beautiful laments

Rhiannon Giddens’ new album with Francesco Turrisi, her partner in life as well as music, explores two subjects that occupied them (and, frankly, the rest of us) over the last tumultuous year. One is often comforting: home. The other is usually the opposite: death. But for this American and Italian, locked-down in their adopted Ireland, they found that exploring these subjects through songs from the perspective of their respective upbringings was uplifting. “Every culture has these songs that are laments,” said Giddens. “Those feelings that you have … you experience them through the song and at the end, you’re a little bit lighter.”
MusicTelegraph

Rhiannon Giddens: ‘It used to be I knew everyone who was black and played the banjo’

It’s a sunny spring morning and Rhiannon Giddens is giving me a history lesson. “There was a town in England called Eyam in medieval times,” she tells me over Zoom from her kitchen in Ireland. “And they were plague-free. But something brought the plague to the town. So you know what they did? They locked themselves down for 14 months. Half the population of the town died – one woman buried six of her children and her husband.”
Musicallaboutjazz.com

Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi: Trading Comforts

While Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi are often billed as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, respectively, on their latest Nonesuch release, They're Calling Me Home, those categorizations are interchangeable. To be sure, Giddens' voice is a central pillar of the album's tent-like structure, into which she and Turrisi invite lifetimes' worth of emotional timelines. But her viola and array of banjos house histories of their own. Their voices are sobering reminders that all the hatred and strife we as a global community have endured in recent years have roots that long outdate us.