Rhiannon Giddens describes herself as “a folkie to the bone,” and Rhiannon Giddens says her connection to the past guides nearly everything she plays and sings. At times on the banjo, she says she can feel the presence of those who came before her, a link that has sustained her career and shaped her artistic purpose.
Giddens performs within the Black string band lineage that stretches back to the era of slavery. She recently brought that sound to a wider audience by playing banjo on Beyoncé’s hit Texas Hold ‘Em, and she has previously been featured on Wait Wait.
She also serves as artistic director of the Silk Road Ensemble, founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, a collective that collaborates with performers from around the globe and draws deeply on their respective traditions.
Rhiannon Giddens and a tradition rooted in the banjo
Her newest release, Hope Is the Thing with Feathers, borrows its title from a poem by Emily Dickinson. For Giddens, the album’s through line is hope, which she connects to ancestors who endured profound hardship in the American South.
She says that perspective frames her outlook today. “What right do I have to not have hope when I don’t have to worry … about starving?” she says.
“I’m not saying I’m a Pollyanna, because I don’t have a lot of faith in humanity, but I have a faith in humans.”
According to the production team, the interview features Giddens singing and playing throughout. The broadcast segment was produced and edited by Therese Madden and Nico Gonzalez Wisler, and the web adaptation was prepared by Bridget Bentz and Molly Seavy-Nesper for NPR.