Rhiannon Giddens & The Old-Time Revue

Rhiannon Giddens & The Old-Time Revue is Giddens’ much anticipated return to her North Carolina roots and the old-time music tradition that launched her career. The winner of two Grammy Awards and a Pulitzer Prize, as well as a MacArthur “Genius,” Giddens has pulled together a band that represents a remarkable array of talent. And with this program, she celebrates her new release, What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow, a fiddle-and-banjo recording made with her old Carolina Chocolate Drops collaborator Justin Robinson. Joining Giddens and Robinson on stage are celebrated multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell, longtime bassist Jason Sypher, guitarist Amelia Powell, and bones player and rapper Demeanor.

What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow features a mix of North Carolinian instrumentals and traditional songs, many that Giddens learned from her late mentor, the legendary North Carolina Piedmont musician Joe Thompson. Thompson was one of the last musicians of his era and community to carry on the southern Black string-band tradition. Rhiannon Giddens & The Old-Time Revue pay homage to that legacy and shepard it into a new era.

“This music doubles down on place, time, realness, and old-fashioned front-porch music,” says Giddens. “It’s a reminder that another way exists, with music made for your community’s enjoyment and for dancing—not solely for commercial purposes. This multi-generational band of chosen and blood family will draw on deep traditions from old-time to cajun to country to blues, all to bring audiences back home in place, in culture, and in community with music you’ll feel in your bones.”

Giddens’ new album, What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow, a collaboration with Justin Robinson, is out now on Nonesuch Records.