Rhiannon Giddens: Black History Month Bonus

Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

Pushkin Industries

Society & Culture, Music

4.5 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2024

⏱️ 99 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’re halfway through Black History month and although we didn’t intend to rerun some of our older conversations to celebrate the month, after realizing we needed to do something to mark Usher’s Super Bowl performance and the release of the new Bob Marley biopic “One Love,” we figured we might as well keep going and celebrate the whole month long…because now we have a country album from Beyonce on the way.

Beyonce released two songs from her upcoming album the night of the Super Bowl—“16 Carriages” and “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM”—to a rapturous response. Not only are the songs good. But they sparked a lot of meaningful conversations about the usefulness of genres, the way marketing shapes our listening and gatekeeping in music. Those are all things very close to Rhiannon Giddens’ heart. As a black banjo player, steeped in the Americana tradition—and its Transatlantic roots—she’s been living this conversation her whole career.

Rhiannon also happens to play on the song “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” with Beyonce. Which just this week hit number one on the country chart, making her the first time a black woman has ever held that spot.

So let’s flash back to when we had Rhiannon on Broken Record back in 2021 to speak with Bruce Headlam about her album They’re Calling Me Home.

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0:00.0	Pushkin
0:11.0	Hey there, we're halfway through Black History Month now, and although we didn't intend to
0:15.4	rerun some of our older conversations to celebrate the month, after realizing we needed
0:20.2	to do something to Mark Usher's Super Bowl performance and the release of the new Bob Marley
0:24.3	Bio-Pic One Love, we figured we might as well keep going and celebrate the whole month long.
0:29.3	Because now we have a country album from Beyonce on the way.
0:33.4	Beyonce released two songs from our upcoming album The Night of the Super Bowl,
0:37.6	16 carriages in Texas Holdham, to a rapturous response.
0:41.6	Not only are the songs good, but they sparked a lot of meaningful
0:45.1	conversations about the usefulness of genres, the way marketing shapes are
0:49.1	listening, and gatekeeping and music. Those are all things very close to Rianin's heart. As a black banjo player
0:56.0	steeped in the American tradition and its transatlantic roots, she's been living this conversation
1:01.4	her whole career.
1:03.0	Rannen also happens to play on the song Texas Holden with Beyonce,
1:07.0	which just this week hit number one on the country chart,
1:10.0	the first time a black woman has ever held that spot.
1:12.0	She also played on 16 carriages too.
1:15.0	So let's flash back to when we had Rianen on Broken Record back in 2021 to speak with Bruce
1:20.3	Hedlam about her album, They're Calling Me Home.
1:23.0	This is Broken Record.
1:27.0	Liner Notes for the Digital Age.
1:29.0	I'm Justin Richmond.
	...

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