Our February AOTM is Rhiannon Giddens: singer, multi-instrumentalist, actor, writer, song collector, activist, and composer. Giddens has been developing her multi-hyphenated legacy of cross-cultural creativity for over twenty years, from being a founding member of the Grammy-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, to multiple solo albums, to her roles on Broadway and TV’s Nashville, to high-profile collaborations like The New Basement Tapes, and as a creator of new boundary-breaking artistic projects around the world.
Throughout the month, we’ll be bringing you several stories about Rhiannon’s resounding legacy as one of the strongest voices in American roots music today, including a preview of her new collaborative album Song of Our Native Daughters with Leyla McCalla, Amythyst Kiah, and Allison Russell; an in-depth interview about her latest project with the Nashville Ballet and writer Caroline Randall Williams, Lucy Negro Redux;Â and a recap of her powerful keynote address from the recent Americana Music Association – UK.
“Nobody owns an instrument; no culture gets to put the lockdown on anything.”
-Rhiannon Giddens at AMA-UK, January 2019
For now, get primed for the month ahead with a collection of some of her best work in our new Essential Rhiannon Giddens playlist on Spotify.
For our regular readers, you’ll notice a slightly different structure to our AOTM feature. Starting this month, we’ll be kicking things off with an introduction to the artist and a preview of the month of coverage ahead.
