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This is Fresh Air.

I'm David Bienkule.

Beyonce's new country album, Cowboy Carter, was released today.

A single from the album, Texas Holdham, went straight to number one on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart,

making her the first black woman to hold that spot.

The excitement over this album is bringing new attention to the under-recognized importance

of black performers in the history of country music. One of Black performers in the history of country music.

One of the performers on Beyoncé's new album is Riannon Giddens, a singer, songwriter,

violinist, and banjo player.

Giddens has won two Grammys, a Pulitzer Prize, and was a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient.

In 2022, she became the artistic director of the Silk Road Ensemble, which was founded by cellist Yoyomah.

Early in her career, she was a member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, which played string band

and jug band music of the 1920s and 30s, music most people associate

with a white southern tradition.

But the members of the Carolina chocolate drops were black.

They saw themselves as part of a little-known black string-band tradition,

forerunners of modern country music and bluegrass. We're going to listen to Giddens and the Carolina chocolate drops in an interview and performance on our show from 2010.

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