{"id":2970,"date":"2026-06-25T17:38:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2970"},"modified":"2026-06-25T17:38:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:38:24","slug":"rhiannon-giddens-previews-new-album-hope-is-the-thing-with-feathers-its-a-punctuation-point-to-20-years-of-me-being-a-roots-and-americana-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2970","title":{"rendered":"Rhiannon Giddens Previews New Album, \u2018Hope Is the Thing With Feathers\u2019: \u2018It\u2019s a Punctuation Point\u2019 to \u201920 Years of Me Being a Roots and Americana Artist\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tIf roots music in America has a poster woman, it\u2019s Rhiannon Giddens, who we can always picture with her banjo, even if she\u2019s doing projects as far afield from that as an opera. She has just announced her seventh album, \u201cHope Is the Thing With Feathers,\u201d which she describes as a \u201cculmination\u201d of the two decades she has spent becoming a leading figure in Americana music. Some sort of musical turn may be ahead, Giddens hints, but for right now, she wanted to throw a party on record, bringing together most of the musicians who\u2019ve been with her on the journey since she co-founded the Carolina Chocolate Drops, recording a mixture of original material and folk standards or classics live in the studio in Louisiana. The new album, with a title track inspired by Emily Dickinson, will arrive Sept. 18.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cI feel so beautiful about so many things,\u201d she tells Variety<\/em>, \u201camidst the just horrible nature of what\u2019s going on in the world right now. So it\u2019s a weird position, but I just will just continue to fight all of that with joy and kindness.\u201d And with fiddles, accordions, guitars and her current instrument of choice, the minstrel banjo. The first single from the album was released Thursday, the uplifting ballad \u201cCarolina Rain,\u201d written and recorded with a longtime music partner, Dirk Powell. <\/p>\n

\n\tOthers contributing to the sessions include her fellow Carolina Chocolate Drop, fiddler Justin Robinson, with whom she made a duo project last year, the Grammy-nominated \u201cWhat Did the Scarecrow Say to the Crow,\u201d an album of old-time songs recorded entirely outdoors; the Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, with whom she made two duo albums, including a Grammy winner for Best Folk Album, 2021\u2019s \u201cThey\u2019re Calling Me Home\u201d; longtime bassist Jason Sypher; Congolese guitarist Niwel Tsumbu; percussionist Charly Lowry; and, keeping things in the family, her nephew Justin Harrington on bones, her sister Lalenja Harrington on vocals, and Powell\u2019s daughter Amelia Powell on acoustic guitar.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe\u2019s had untold amounts of other irons in the fire, including such quick detours as working on the \u201cSinners\u201d soundtrack and performing on Beyonce\u2019s \u201cCowboy Carter\u201d album. More recently, she filmed a lead role in the festival-bound independent film \u201cAn Ode to Mary Joe,\u201d where she acted alongside Ed Helms, Regina Taylor, Jason Isbell, Steve Earle and John Sayles. Variety<\/em> caught up with her about the movie and about her recently formed Biscuits & Banjos Foundation as well as the forthcoming Nonesuch album.<\/p>\n

\nEvery album of yours has its own musical concept. This is obviously different from the last one, \u201cWhat Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow?,\u201d which was just two people, whereas this has a much more extensive complement of players. What was the initial directive on this one?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019d say it was really all about celebrating my musical family. It\u2019s been the last 20 years \u2014 21 years, really, if I date it back to 2005, when I met the other original Chocolate Drops at the Black Banjo Gathering; that\u2019s kind of where I place the beginning of my career. Along the way I\u2019ve made many musical friends, and the family slowly expands over the years, and so what happens is that we have this deep musical common language that we\u2019ve developed by playing with each other. So I had all the different branches that I could \u2014 everything but Silkroad Ensemble, really \u2014 come together for this record. It\u2019s all the people that I\u2019ve been creating music with over the years, including my blood family, who were the first people that I made music with when I was 4 or 5 years old, when I started singing with my sister. It means a lot to have so many people represented on one project.<\/p>\n

\nTalk a little bit about \u201cCarolina Rain.\u201d It\u2019s not hard to see why this would be the first single; it feels contemporary to the ear and may be an easy entry point compared to some of the songs that really get into old-time music. It\u2019s a beautiful song, and of course, Carolina\u2019s in the title, and you\u2019ve got a fair amount of Carolina sprinkled through this album. Where did that song come from?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI wrote it some years ago with Dirk, my longtime songwriting partner. We wanted to have it really be part of the sound that I created with this sort of combined band of the old-time folks and then also Francesco and Nihil and some of the people from the latter part of my sort of journey, all together. So we have the accordion and the banjo and the fiddle and the African guitar and everything kind of coming together. It just says a lot of things that I believe. You know, I am not really made for this industry. Even you saying it\u2019s a more modern song, before people have to grapple with the old-time aspects of the record\u2026 I mean, it\u2019s just like, I\u2019m not really made for this world. And I\u2019m having a career in spite of that. So I\u2019m super grateful that I get to do what I do, that I get to foreground the musicians that I get to foreground and be a part of what I\u2019m doing. But, it\u2019s a great song; that\u2019s all I know. Whether it\u2019s more commercially viable, I don\u2019t know, and I don\u2019t really care.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor me, the verses say a lot. We\u2019re so focused on money and stature and status that we\u2019re destroying ourselves and our environment. And I don\u2019t know that a song does anything other than just create a moment that maybe makes people think of something, or maybe makes them feel good for a second. But if I\u2019m gonna make a song, I\u2019m gonna make a song that has my philosophy in it, you know? And that a lot of people that I know, including my collaborators like Dirk, and the other people on the record, we\u2019re all making music because we believe in it and we love it, not to be famous and rich and all that stuff. So that really kind of plants a flag in the sand as far as I\u2019m concerned, for what I think and feel.<\/p>\n

\nIs there a key line in \u201cCarolina Rain,\u201d for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tAll of the words are combining in my brain. It is a song about singing about money, and how I don\u2019t care about it. I do<\/em>, obviously, because I have to pay for stuff and I have to support my family, but it\u2019s not why I do anything, for money. Especially as I\u2019m 49 and I\u2019ll be 50 next year, going through menopause, I\u2019ve had these big changes in my life, and I\u2019m seeing what\u2019s going on in the world, and I just want to focus on what\u2019s real: being with my loved ones, getting enough of what I need and sharing the rest. That\u2019s all I care about really, and that song says it pretty clearly \u2014 \u201cJust you and me, in love again, alive\u201d\u2026 that\u2019s it. We\u2019re so blessed to be alive where there\u2019s so many people being killed all over the world, bombed, dying of starvation, dying of disease. To be alive, it should be a right, but it is a privilege. That\u2019s the way we\u2019ve sort of set up our world, that it is a privilege to live in good health and with your needs met. So what are we doing with that privilege? If we\u2019re not uplifting other people, if we\u2019re not sharing that privilege, then as far as I\u2019m concerned, we\u2019re not doing it. I\u2019m just getting philosophical in my old age, but I believe that that\u2019s the only way forward, and I will stand on that.<\/p>\n

\nAlong the lines of the state of the world, one other original song to ask about from the album is \u201cWish in Vain,\u201d which is about the refugee crisis around the globe.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tReally for me, it\u2019s all about connections. That\u2019s why I write in a traditional way so much, because so many of the old songs are saying the same stuff that people are going through now. So it doesn\u2019t matter which refugee crisis you\u2019re talking about or which decade or which century; they all are the same thing. It\u2019s people in power doing something so that people who don\u2019t have power are being forced out, or they have to go for economic reasons, or they\u2019re getting bombed. When that happens, nobody leaves their home, their ancestral land, their loved ones, unless they have to. That\u2019s just human nature. And so when you have to leave, what happens? You miss your loved ones. You miss your culture. You miss your food. You miss the same stuff that other people 200 miles away who are going through the same thing also miss. People 200 years away also miss the same stuff. So that\u2019s always my question: when we look at the past, it never should be just to look at the past. It\u2019s always how can we use that to investigate and make a comment on what\u2019s happening right now and to see people\u2019s humanity? These are the only ways forward that make any sense whatsoever, is to restore people\u2019s humanity by comparing struggles and going, \u201cYou know, gosh, they\u2019re going through the same thing we\u2019re going through,\u201d or \u201cthat we went through two generations ago, they\u2019re going through now.\u201d How can we reroute and rethink about how we exist in the world?<\/p>\n

\nWhy did the Emily Dickinson poem resonate as something that should be the title of your album as well as a song on the album?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWhat we\u2019re trying to do with our music and with our art is \u00a0keep this idea of the best part of us, as humans, represented in music and art. It\u2019s really where we come together in joy and humanity. I was just in a hotel room looking at that poem and just thinking about here\u2019s this woman who really had such a prescribed life, and she was able to let her imagination soar way beyond where her physical body was. You know, hope is such a deeply human concept. It just really, really inspired me, and then the tune just came to me, and I sang it right into my phone a cappella. Then the other part of it was really kind of finished with Niwel\u2019s beautiful harmonic accompaniment. And I really think about the way that we can collaborate even if we\u2019ve never met the person [as with Giddens \u201ccollaborating\u201d with Dicksinon]. We can make something new out of something old, and then hopefully somebody else will do it sometime. I mean, that poem\u2019s probably been made into songs a million times. So, maybe somebody will make something out of this version, maybe they won\u2019t. But it\u2019ll make a whole \u2018nother set of people listen to the words in a different way, I hope.<\/p>\n

\nYou do a traditional number called \u201cCluck Old Hen,\u201d and you left in some chatter at the beginning where you\u2019re saying, \u201cHell yeah!\u201d It accentuates that this album was recorded live, in the studio.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, it was down in Breaux Bridge in Louisiana at Dirt Studio, where I did \u201cFreedom Highway.\u201d We did it in several different sessions kind of right off the road, and you can really feel that. We did a long tour, and then we\u2019d go in for a couple days and we\u2019d just rip through some tunes that we\u2019d been playing together, so you feel that energy and the comfortableness. And I really wanted to leave some of that vibe in, because I feel like a lot of times recordings are so clean and so separated, and I\u2019m kind of wanting to get away from that. I have been for the last couple projects, especially the last one obviously \u2014 \u00a0I was really going far out with recording outside and stuff. This was in a studio, but a small studio, and there was no separation and very little overdubbing and people playing together like we\u2019d been playing. I really wanted to leave a little bit of that (talking) in, just to get that vibe of you kind of snuck into the session and you\u2019re just sitting in the back, watching it all go down.<\/p>\n

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\nThis is not as big a pivot from your previous album as that album was from \u201cYou\u2019re the One,\u201d which was more contemporary and, as you put it, more produced. Do you think you have more sort of \u201cYou\u2019re the One\u201d-type albums in you, or do you kind of feel like this is really sort of a groove you\u2019ve settled into now, with the blend you have arrived at for this album?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tHmm. I feel like this is a culmination of a lot of things for me. I won\u2019t say it\u2019s an end. But I\u2019ll say it feels like there\u2019s a little bit of a turn coming. You know, we all know I\u2019m not gonna be a pop singer. We all know that I\u2019m not gonna be a super commercial singer at this point. But I definitely think that there\u2019s a lot of things that I would like to investigate and explore, and so it feels like this is a good punctuation point for me. This record, it\u2019s kind of the end of 20 years of being a roots and Americana artist. And it\u2019s not saying I won\u2019t work with these people again; obviously, I will, and I have been. But it definitely feels like a moment of reflection. This is in some ways a culmination for me of a lot of relationships, a lot of time spent, a lot of musical languages that I\u2019ve been learning and trying to really get as good as I can in, and a type of songwriting that I feel really good about. So it\u2019s a moment of \u201cLet\u2019s pause and have a little party.\u201d It\u2019s been a great career so far, and we\u2019ll see what the next few years bring. But I\u2019m really happy that this is coming out at this point.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou know, Biscuits & Banjos [her festival in Durham] was last year. I did a 250 show for Carnegie Hall. I\u2019m curating my own festival in Hamburg, at the Elbphilharmonie. And Silkroad Sanctuary Project has gone really well. I\u2019m getting these opportunities to foreground a lot of really great people. So I feel like last year and this year definitely feels like I\u2019m seeing the work that I\u2019ve been putting in really flowering and growing fruit, and my musical family just growing. I feel so beautiful about so many things amidst the just horrible nature of what\u2019s going on in the world right now. So it\u2019s a weird position, but I just will just continue to fight all of that with joy and kindness.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd then also fight it with unflinching looks at our history, which is something I\u2019m in right now as I work on a book and I work on the really uncomfortable aspects of American history. I\u2019s been a very sobering thing, to really dig into the archives and to really look at what our entertainment industry is based on, in terms of racism\u2026 I mean, that\u2019s coming. So this is a great moment to be like, \u201cLet\u2019s play some old-time music!\u201d<\/p>\n

\nSo the sobering book is on the way?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, I\u2019ve gotta finish writing it. This isn\u2019t the interview for that project. But it\u2019s just to say, to write that book, I\u2019m digging hard into some pretty uncomfortable aspects of American cultural history, so that has been on my mind a lot. So I\u2019m very glad that this record is on the lighter side\u2026 I mean, there\u2019s a couple of hard-hitting songs on there \u2014\u201dStep Away Blues\u201d is pretty intense. But I\u2019m happy that \u201cCarolina Rain\u201d is coming out and it\u2019s just like, yay! You know? I need a little bit of \u201cyay\u201d right now.<\/p>\n

\nWe want to ask about your film role, in \u201cAn Ode to Mary Joe.\u201d Is that already filmed and in the can?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI filmed it in November. The movie is almost done, and it\u2019s amazing. I\u2019m so proud of it. I can\u2019t wait to actually really get into talking about it because it was such an intense, incredible experience and I got to work with so many cool people. I learned so much about who I am as an artist as well as just the whole industry. Despite what you see when you look at the big blockbuster movies, when you look at independent filmmaking, the world is full of people who just fucking love movies, and they love telling stories, and they just want a good script to see the light of day. \u2026 You\u2019ve got people on the other end of the spectrum with next to nothing, managing somehow to make really incredible pieces of art. So it\u2019s just wild \u2014 there\u2019s not much in between, but that\u2019s what\u2019s happening to every industry. The middle class is getting hollowed out. There\u2019s the same with with musicians. The middle part\u2019s getting scooped, and then you have either all the money in the world and all the investors in the world, and then the people that have all the things to say in the world and hardly any money and you\u2019re fighting and scrapping for everything, but you have control over what\u2019s happening with it. So it\u2019s an interesting time.<\/p>\n

\nAny idea when people will be seeing the film, either in a mass way or at festivals first?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tAll I know is that we\u2019re trying to get it in some festivals and hoping that people bite. It\u2019s a great story and it deserves to be seen, whether people like what I did in it or not. It talks a lot about a lot of people in America right now who are struggling, and it really makes a lot of really beautiful points about what\u2019s happening right now, which I think people will connect to. I hope it gets seen by the people who those folks who will draw something positive from it, whether it\u2019s on Netflix or in movie theaters or wherever it ends up.<\/p>\n

\nJust to ask briefly about the Biscuits & Banjos Foundation, what gave you the idea that you wanted to sort of uplift people in an ongoing way, not just through the festival of that name?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, it comes out of a festival that so many people put so much sweat, blood, and tears into. It turned out really well, but it\u2019s hard to put on a festival if you\u2019re trying to do it in a community-minded way where you\u2019re making connections that are long-lasting and not looking for corporate support \u2014 it\u2019s hard and it\u2019s expensive. Especially now, the climate of doing what we\u2019re doing in particular has kinda got a bullseye on its back in terms of the subject matter. There\u2019s a group of people who want to support this work, and so I wanted to take the energy that Biscuits & Banjos built with the good will in Durham. We\u2019re continuing to do events every year around that time. This year we had a dance, we had some talks, and then we had a great concert with the Blind Boys of Alabama, Mavis Staples and my band. And so we\u2019re gonna hopefully keep the Biscuits & Banjos idea and thought alive with this foundation to continue to hopefully get up to another full festival. You know, maybe it\u2019s every five years, I don\u2019t know. Now that we\u2019ve had the first one, I want to now make sure everybody\u2019s compensated really well and make sure I don\u2019t have to ask for friend and family rates when I\u2019m asking people to come play my show. It\u2019s got to stand on its own two feet. So the foundation really is to jkeep that energy going, as a place where people can donate, and something that can pick up the slack now that funding is drying up in other areas, because of what\u2019s happening with the government and these kinds of things. It\u2019s trying to keep things rolling, like providing banjos, for example, for some groups around the country who want to get banjo circles going, because not everybody has the money to buy a banjo. We\u2019re just providing and making sure that people have access to these instruments and so that this work can continue.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cHope Is the Thing With Feathers\u201d track list<\/strong>
Angel Fire Rise
Hope Is the Thing with Feathers
Step Away Blues
Wish in Vain
Carolina Rain
High on a Mountain
Freight Train
Walk With Me
Cluck Old Hen
Going Home<\/p>\n

\nTour Dates:<\/strong>
July 17 \u2013 Trumansburg, NY \u2013 Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival
July 18 \u2013 Oak HIll, NY \u2013 Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival
July 19 \u2013 Hanover, NH \u2013 Hopkins Center for the Arts
July 22 \u2013 Wilmington, NC \u2013 Greenfield Lake Amphitheater
July 25 \u2013 Lyons, CO \u2013 RockyGrass
July 28 \u2013 Bar Harbor, ME \u2013 Criterion Theater
Aug 20 \u2013 Lenox, MA \u2013 Seiji Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood *
Aug 21 \u2013 Waterloo, NY \u2013 The Vine Theater at del Lago Resort *
Aug 22 \u2013 Chautauqua, NY \u2013 Chautauqua Institution *
Nov 01 \u2013 Minneapolis, MN \u2013 Walker Art Center (Mack Lecture Series)
Nov 14 \u2013 New York, NY \u2013 Carnegie Hall (with Silkroad Ensemble & Yo-Yo Ma)
Nov 25-29 \u2013 Hamburg, Germany \u2013 Elbphilharmonie<\/p>\n

\n