Rhiannon Giddens Goes Back In Time To Help Us See Our Present
Rhiannon Giddens spoke with New York Chapter at the Newport Folk Festival in 2017, the year of her solo album Freedom Highway, produced by Dirk Powell. She won a GRAMMY at the 53rd GRAMMY Awards as part of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Best Traditional Folk Album for Genuine Negro Jig. She described how conversations with Powell led them into making the new album, as an organic process. She plays banjo, violin and sings, often choosing material that pulls from the past to be relevant to the present day. "You have to have empathy and the power of music is that it can help foster that," said Giddens. "It can create that. It can support the feeling of, 'Let me think of what it was like to be this person.'"
Rhiannon Giddens' Diversity In Bluegrass Speech Earns Standing 'O'
