Best Of: Rhiannon Giddens / Investigating Diddy’s Rise & Fall
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Who is Rhiannon Giddens and what is her musical background?
From WHYY in Philadelphia, this is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Tanya Mosley in Los Angeles. That's today's guest, Rihannan Giddens, playing the opening banjo riff on Beyoncé's hit Texas Hold'em. Giddens doesn't usually play pop music. She comes from the Blackstring band tradition, is the artistic director of the Silk Road Ensemble and studied opera in college. It's not
a usual path.
from opera to the banjo.
There's nothing about you that is usual as far as far as I can tell.
Also, Rolling Stone investigative reporter Cheyenne Roundtree talks about her new book, Bad Boy for Life. Which tells the story of Sean Combs across the names he gave himself Puffy, Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, and Love. Plus, Justin Chang reviews the new film Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother, starring Mahershala Ali. That's coming up on Fresh Air Weekend.
If you're a super fan of Fresh Air with Terry Gross, we have exciting news. WHYY has launched a Fresh Air Society, a leadership group dedicated to ensuring Fresh Air's legacy. For over 50 years, this program has brought you fascinating interviews with favorite authors, artists, actors, and more. As a member of the Fresh Air Society, you'll receive special benefits and recognition. Learn more at WHYY.org/slash. Fresh Air Society.
This is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Tanya Mosley. Terry has our first interview.
There are many ways you may know my guest, singer, banjo player, fiddler, and songwriter Rihanna Giddens. Early in her career she co founded the Carolina Chocolate Drops, which played music from the black string band tradition dating back to slave times. She's since recorded several solo albums. On one of them, she recorded and wrote several songs based on slave narratives, and one song based on an ad from a slave holder who had Looking to sell a young enslaved woman. Offering the buyer the option of buying the woman's nine month old baby. Giddens studied opera singing in college and won a Pulitzer Prize for co-writing the opera Omar about a Muslim scholar from Senegal who was sold into slavery in the US.
She also was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as the Genius Grant. She's now the artistic director of the Silk Road Ensemble, which was founded by Cellus Yo Yo Ma and is dedicated to playing with musicians from around the world, drawing on their musical traditions. If all that isn't enough to spark your interest, it's time to bring in the name Beyonce. It's Giddens playing banjo on Texas Holdem, the hit track on Beyonce's country music album Cowboy Carter. We'll talk about that a little later. Rihanna Giddens has a new album called Hope is the Thing with Feathers. The title track is the title of an Emily Dickinson poem that Giddens has set to music. She's brought her banjo and fiddle, and will play and sing a little later in the show.
Let's start with a track from the new album. This is Step Away Blues, which he co-wrote.
Step away, step away. I've got my soul in my hand. Yeah.
Better get my name out your mouth. You'll never understand. Uh
I'm tired of taking off my skin. So you can see my heart.
Rihanna Giddens, welcome back to Fresh Air. Thanks. Thanks for having me. Such a pleasure to have you back. Step away blue is what you co-wrote. You write in the liner notes that you think it definitely feels like a song for your crone ears. And crone isn't a c kind of archaic word for people who don't know the definition. It's basically a condescending and contemptful word for an old woman who typically is ugly if the word crone is used. So when you say your crone years, what do you mean and why is that a song for your crone years?
You know, there's words that have dictionary definitions, there's words that have connotations that were generations ago. And then there's words that are being reclaimed. And I feel like Crone is one of those words because women who have gone through menopause tend to disappear in societies, including ours. And I think we are all looking for ways to reclaim that time because it actually is a time of great power, which is why of course it's been under attack for
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
Who is Rhiannon Giddens and what is her musical background?
0:01–7:08
2
How did Rhiannon’s opera training influence her folk and banjo work?
7:08–12:06
3
What is the story behind the banjo riff on Beyoncé’s ‘Texas Hold ’Em’?
12:06–17:03
4
Why does the song ‘Step Away Blues’ represent Giddens’ “crone years”?
17:03–42:22
5
How did performing at Sing Sing prison change Giddens’ relationship with Black audiences?
42:22–49:19
Speakers
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Rhiannon Giddens traces the banjo from her ancestors to Beyoncé
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