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The New Yorker Radio Hour

Rhiannon Giddens, Americana’s Queen, Goes Global

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2021

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

By the standards of any musician, Rhiannon Giddens has taken a twisting and complex path. Trained as an operatic soprano at the prestigious Oberlin Conservatory, Giddens fell almost by chance into the study of American folk music. Alongside two like-minded musicians, she formed the Carolina Chocolate Drops, in which she plays banjo and sings. The group is focussed on reviving the nearly forgotten repertoire of Black Southern string bands, but the audience for acoustic music remains largely white. Giddens tells David Remnick she was heartbroken that her largest Black audience was at a prison concert. “The gatekeepers of Black culture are not interested in what I’m doing,” she says. “This is a complaint I’ve heard from many, many people of color who do music that’s not considered Black—hip-hop, R. & B.” Her view of Black music is more expansive: “There’s been black people singing opera and writing classical music forever.” As a solo artist, Giddens is moving increasingly further afield from African American and American music; her new album, “There Is No Other,” recorded in Dublin in collaboration with the musician Francesco Turrisi, explores folk styles from the Middle East, Europe, and Brazil, as well as early America. She and Turrisi perform “Wayfaring Stranger,” the ancient ballad “Little Margaret,” and the tarantella “Pizzica di San Vito.”  This segment was previously aired in 2019.

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

0:08.7

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. Riannon Giddens has had one of the more

0:13.6

unusual career paths of any musician I know of. She studied opera training to be a soprano at one of the

0:19.3

most prestigious music programs in the country.

0:22.5

But almost by chance, she fell hard and deep into the study of American folk music.

0:27.4

She became the front woman of a string band called the Carolina Chocolate Trops,

0:31.9

focusing on reviving forgotten musical traditions of the Black Diaspora.

0:36.6

And they received a Grammy Award 10 years ago.

0:39.8

As a scheming, I was beaming, and his beamer just beaming,

0:43.7

can't believe that I call my man cheating.

0:46.3

So I found another way to make him pay for rid of all.

0:49.5

As a solo artist, though, she's moved increasingly far afield.

0:53.4

I spoke with her after her album, There Is No Other

0:55.9

Came out in 2019.

0:58.2

She was exploring folk styles from the

1:00.0

Middle East and Europe as well as early America

1:02.2

in collaboration with the musician

1:04.2

Francesco Terisi.

1:06.2

She's nominated for a Grammy for another

1:08.2

album with Teresi called

1:09.5

They're Calling Me Home.

1:11.6

Can I have you, see?

...

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