Rhiannon Giddens

Rhiannon Giddens
Rhiannon Giddens with a stringed instrument
Giddens performing at Aarhus Festival in 2015
Background information
Born (1977-02-21) February 21, 1977 (age 47)
Greensboro, North Carolina, U.S.
Genres
Instruments
Years active2005–present
Labels
Formerly of
WebsiteOfficial website Edit this at Wikidata

Rhiannon Giddens (born February 21, 1977) is an American musician known for her eclectic folk music. She is a founding member of the country, blues, and old-time music band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, where she was the lead singer, fiddle player, and banjo player.

Giddens is a native of Greensboro, North Carolina. In addition to her work with the Grammy-winning[1] Chocolate Drops, Giddens has released five solo albums: Tomorrow Is My Turn (2015) and Freedom Highway (2017), 2019 and 2021's There Is No Other and They're Calling Me Home (both collaborations with Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi), and You're the One (2023). She appears in the Smithsonian Folkways collection documenting Mike Seeger's final trip through Appalachia in 2009, Just Around The Bend: Survival and Revival in Southern Banjo Styles – Mike Seeger's Last Documentary (2019).[2] In 2014, she participated in the T Bone Burnett-produced project titled The New Basement Tapes along with several other musicians, which set a series of recently discovered Bob Dylan lyrics to newly composed music. The resulting album, Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes, was a top-40 Billboard album.

In 2023, the opera Omar, co-written by Giddens and Michael Abels, won the Pulitzer Prize for Music.[3][4]

  1. ^ "Past Winners Search". Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  2. ^ "Just Around the Bend: Survival and Revival in Southern Banjo Sounds – Mike Seeger's Last Documentary". folkways.si.edu. Smithsonian Folkways. September 2019. Retrieved 2019-09-11.
  3. ^ "2023 Pulitzer Prizes". Pulitzer.org. Retrieved 2023-05-09.
  4. ^ "Rhiannon Giddens Announces Forthcoming Album on Heels of Pulitzer Prize News". variety.com. 2023-05-09. Retrieved 2023-05-09.