GROSS: What got you into reading slave narratives and thinking you'd base some songs on them? So you know, all of those things and then leading to the thing that so many enslaved people did, which was to follow the Union Army and camp right outside the barracks in Tennessee. It's like your own cultural marriage, you know, jumping the broom. You know, the loss of parents, whether by, you know, death or by them being sold away, that breaking up of the family is in there, the first two verses.Īnd then the whole idea of the one-day-a-week marriage - you know, if you married somebody who was on another plantation, you only got to be together for one day a week, you know? And, of course, that marriage wasn't even legal. And it kind of - it takes all of those and puts them into one life. GIDDENS: Well, that one in particular is actually kind of based on an amalgam of stories that I was reading just - you know, just sort of the usual - I hesitate to say that word but the usual experiences of a lot of people back then. Tell us about the slave narrative that the song we just heard is based on. GROSS: Rhiannon Giddens, welcome back to FRESH AIR.
When I was 12, my father dear was strong. They buried her in the cold, cold ground. When I was 4, my loving mam was cornered by the boss' man. RHIANNON GIDDENS: (Singing) Come, love, come. Let's start with one of her songs inspired by slave narratives from her album "Freedom Highway." This is "Come Love Come."
Hue and cry in slavery series#
Giddens had a featured role in the TV series "Nashville." Her latest album, "They're Calling Me Home" with Francesco Turrisi, won a Grammy earlier this year for Best Folk Album. It premiered last month at the Spoleto Festival.
She wrote the libretto and music for the original opera "Omar," based on the autobiography of an enslaved man. In 2020, she was named artistic director of Silkroad, the ensemble and cultural organization founded by Yo-Yo Ma. And in the same year of our interview, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, commonly known as the Genius Award. She co-founded the band The Carolina Chocolate Drops. But she found her musical identity after graduation when she started playing string band music from the 1920s and '30s with songs based on African American musical traditions. She grew up in North Carolina, the daughter of an African American mother and a white father. Giddens has a personal and musical background that crosses boundaries. She has a beautiful voice, and she brought her banjo with her to sing some of her songs. She first featured some of them on her album "Freedom Highway," which was released in 2017, when we recorded this interview. We're going to observe Juneteenth by featuring our interview with songwriter, singer and musician Rhiannon Giddens, who has set several slave narratives to music. It fell on a Sunday this year, so many people have the day off today to celebrate. It's been celebrated by African Americans in various forms since 1865 and last year was recognized as an official federal holiday. Yesterday was Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S. I want to thank Dave Davies for hosting last week while I took the week off.
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