“I started singing at an ungodly age, standing in my crib and warbling at passing family members. I didn’t really think of it as a career until I went to the School of Science and Math and realized that I never wanted to do another algorithm. So I went to Oberlin Conservatory and did the whole opera/recital thing, burned out and discovered the banjo! The rest is history.”
Rhiannon Giddens
Singer-songwriter Giddens is the co-founder of the GRAMMY Award–winning African-American string band Carolina Chocolate Drops, in which she also played banjo and fiddle. She began gaining recognition as a solo artist when she stole the show at the T Bone Burnett–produced Another Day, Another Time concert at New York City’s Town Hall in 2013. She sang Odetta’s Water Boy with, as the New York Times put it, “the fervor of a spiritual, the yips of a folk holler, and the sultry insinuation of the blues,”
The elegant bearing, prodigious voice, and fierce spirit that brought the NYC audience to its feet that night, and audiences around the world since, was also abundantly evident on Giddens’ Grammy-nominated solo debut album, “Tomorrow Is My Turn”. The recording masterfully blends American genres like gospel, jazz, blues, and country, showcasing her extraordinary emotional range and dazzling vocal prowess. She since followed that success with “Freedom Highway”, produced by T Bone Burnett. A record that traces the power of African-American song from 200 years ago to today.
It has become abundantly clear that Rhiannon Giddens was to take her place as a peerless and powerful voice in roots music, and her appearance at the festival was to be eagerly, enthusiastically, breathlessly anticipated.
“What was on display tonight was the performance of an artist on the cusp of a true critical and commercial breakthrough with a voice that was regal, confident and, at every turn, breathtaking.” -The Musical Box
A founding member of the landmark Black string band Carolina Chocolate Drops, and the all-female banjo supergroup, Our Native Daughters, Giddens is as much a curator as a creator. She is the current Artistic Director of the Yo-Yo Ma-founded Silkroad Ensemble, hosts a TV show on PBS, My Music with Rhiannon Giddens, and has hosted two podcasts (Aria Code from New York City’s NPR affiliate station WQXR, which ran for three seasons, and American Railroad from Silkroad). Giddens has published two children’s books and written and performed music for the soundtrack of Red Dead Redemption II, one of the best-selling video games of all time. She appeared as a recurring cast member on ABC’s hit drama Nashville and as a music history expert on Ken Burns’ Country Music series on PBS. This year, she launched her own music festival in Durham, NC called Biscuits & Banjos, to celebrate Black culture outside the mainstream.
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