Rhiannon Giddens Calls New Album a 'Punctuation Point'
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- Rhiannon Giddens announced her seventh album, "Hope Is the Thing With Feathers," set for Sept. 18 release on Nonesuch, calling it a "culmination" and "punctuation point" of her 20+ years in Americana and hinting that "some sort of musical turn may be ahead"
- The album was recorded live in studio in Louisiana with a large ensemble blending original material and folk standards; the title track is inspired by an Emily Dickinson poem Giddens first sang "a cappella" into her phone
- "Carolina Rain," the first single released Thursday, was co-written with longtime partner Dirk Powell and distills Giddens' philosophy that "being alive, it should be a right, but it is a privilege" — key lines include "Just you and me, in love again, alive"
- Contributors include fellow Carolina Chocolate Drop and fiddler Justin Robinson, Grammy-winning Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, Congolese guitarist Niwel Tsumbu, and family members including sister Lalenja Harrington on vocals, nephew Justin Harrington on bones, and Powell's daughter Amelia Powell on acoustic guitar
- "Wish in Vain" addresses the global refugee crisis, with Giddens arguing that connecting historical displacement to present-day crises is "the only way forward" to "restore people's humanity"
- Giddens recently filmed a lead role in the festival-bound indie film "An Ode to Mary Joe" alongside Ed Helms, Jason Isbell, Steve Earle, and Regina Taylor, and recently formed the Biscuits & Banjos Foundation
Why it matters: This brings together nearly Giddens' entire musical family — Carolina Chocolate Drop Justin Robinson, Grammy-winner Francesco Turrisi, her sister and nephew — on one record after 20 years in the field. For the 49-year-old artist, it functions as both a career culmination and a philosophical statement about using artistic privilege to address global displacement and inequality.
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