Build A House (with Yo-Yo Ma & Francesco Turrisi)

You're the One

Way Over Yonder

Another Wasted Life

Good Ol' Cider

If You Don’t Know How Sweet It Is

Wrong Kind of Right

Hen in the Foxhouse

Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad

You Put the Sugar in My Bowl

Who Are You Dreaming Of

The Ballad of Sally Anne

Genius: MLK/X

Home

From the album Tomorrow Is My Turn

The landscape of American music is littered with the ghosts of the unknowable and mysterious blues musician, scratchy voices on a 78 conjuring up an era and an energy long gone. No one represents this better, perhaps, than Geeshie Wiley, who, along with equally unknown L.V. Thomas, recorded a handful of sides for Paramount Records in 1930–31. “Last Kind Word Blues” calls to me in a way that I can’t really explain, but when producer T Bone Burnett suggested it for the record, I knew instantly it was the way to begin.

Tomorrow Is My Turn

Last Kind Words

From the album Tomorrow Is My Turn

Patsy Cline is of course the ultimate country singer, and one of the ultimate singers, period. But the way she took care of her family and friends, and the way she was able to take control of her career and inspire respect in an industry run by men, are just as impressive to me. Hubby Jenkins and I recast this in a sort of old-timey R&B vibe.

She's Got You

From the album Tomorrow Is My Turn

This is a poignant English translation of the Charles Aznavour song “L’amour c’est comme un jour.” I saw a video from 1968 of Nina Simone performing in London and it became the linchpin of this entire project. I was enthralled with this performance, showed it to friends, and it was at the top of the list when I started thinking about songs to do. This imagery was never too far from me for the recording of this album.

From the album Tomorrow Is My Turn

This is one of many African-American spirituals that have been set for classical voice and piano – this one was arranged by the celebrated black tenor Roland Hayes. I was captivated by Florence Quivar’s rendition of it and brought it to the session – the challenge was to translate this spiritual through a classical lens back to the vernacular side. Gabe Witcher took the original Hayes arrangement and chordal structure and broke it down between guitar, banjo, and double bass, and I strove to find a timbre that fit in.

Round About the Mountain

From the album Tomorrow Is My Turn

Libba Cotten was a well-regarded guitar player who was born in North Carolina and discovered when she was keeping house for the Seeger family. She played a unique left-handed style of guitar but didn't have all her voice left in her later years – on her recording of “Shake Sugaree,” her granddaughter Brenda Evans sings the lyrics, about making the most out of what you got.

Shake Sugaree

Forever Young

Forever Young (From NBC's Parenthood)

Freedom Highway

At the Purchaser's Option

I'm On My Way (with Francesco Turrisi)

there is no Other (with Francesco Turrisi)

Gonna Write Me a Letter (with Francesco Turrisi)

Brown Baby (with Francesco Turrisi)

Trees on the Mountains (with Francesco Turrisi)

Ten Thousand Voices (with Francesco Turrisi)

Little Margaret (with Francesco Turrisi)

Wayfaring Stranger (with Francesco Turrisi)

Pizzica di San Vito (with Francesco Turrisi)

Hard Times/Camptown Hornpipe (with Francesco Turrisi)

Just the Two of Us (feat. Sxip Shirey)

Calling Me Home (with Francesco Turrisi)

They're Calling Me Home (with Francesco Turrisi)

Si Dolce è'l Tormento (with Francesco Turrisi)

Rhiannon Giddens is a celebrated artist who excavates the past to reveal truths about our present. A MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient, Giddens has been Grammy-nominated six times, and won once, for her work with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a group she co-founded. Pitchfork has said of her “few artists are so fearless and so ravenous in their exploration,” and Smithsonian Magazine calls her “an electrifying artist who brings alive the memories of forgotten predecessors, white and black.”

Rhiannon Giddens

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