Freedom Highway - Rhiannon Giddens (February 2017)

 

Freedom Highway - Rhiannon Giddens

Nonesuch

Produced by Rhiannon Giddens

Released 24th February 2017

I took a bit of a shine to the music of Rhiannon Giddens a couple of years back without connecting the fact that she was a founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Seeing her singing St. James Infirmary Blues with Tom Jones on Jools Holland's Hootenanny was also another fine moment (as were her performances of Waterboy and Up Above My Head) .

Rhiannon was named as the Folk Singer of The Year for 2016 at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Along with her band Carolina Chocolate Drops she was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2016.

Her Debut Solo album Tomorrow Is My Turn was a real delight. Her second album came out last week and it's a continuation of  her wonderful sound bringing together strains of Folk, Gospel, Soul, and Americana.

Absolutely love the title track of this one. It was originally done by The Staple Singers back in the 1960's. Mavis Staples still gets to sing it from time to time, and still sounds fabulous!