Soundtrack4Life: The Best Albums of 2017 - #18 Freedom Highway - Rhiannon Giddens

Following her excellent Solo Debut Album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, in 2015 Rhiannon Giddens had quite the successful 2016 winning Album of the Year at the International Folk Music Awards and Folk Singer of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Add to that she also won the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass and also was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame along with the band she founded The Carolina Chocolate Drops.

At the end of 2016 and into 2017 she  appeared in the TV show Nashville as Hallie Jordan, a hardworking social worker who also worked in her church and educated children with regard to music. She had a number of songs included as part of the soundtrack (God Shall Wipe All Tears Away, His Eye Is On The Sparrow, Sourwood Mountain, Can't Nobody Do Me Like Jesus, Wrong Kind of Right, Going Down The Road Feeling Bad, Who I Love and Count On Me).

I absolutely love Rhiannon Giddens vocal style. She's a total one off, nobody sings like her. She may not be to everyone's liking but go on and give her a chance to wow you.

 Freedom Highway - Rhiannon Giddens
Nonesuch
Produced by Rhiannon Giddens
Released 24th February 2017
US Chart #124
US Folk Albums #8
UK Chart #39
 

It's a tough job trying to pigeon hole Rhiannon Giddens into any one particular musical genre because as this album attests you could say Bluegrass and then she pulls off a Blues song, or you might say Gospel and she pulls off a beautiful slice of Traditional Americana, add to that Soul, and even a Rap in one song and you've got a real mixed bag that for some odd reason seems to work really well as a complete body of work.

The title song Freedom Highway is one written by Roebuck "Pops" Staples (and recorded by The Staples Singers) back in the 60s and is one of the great songs of the Civil Rights Movement. is also performed from time to time by his daughter Mavis Staples.

You might wonder why I have started off this Top 20 with four female vocalists/songwriters (Hayley Williams of Paramore, Shelby Lynne/Allison Moorer and now Rhiannon Giddens), well there is no agenda just an appreciation of the great talent that is out there and there will probably be a few other female vocalists as we continue to explore The Best Albums of 2017.

Rhiannon Giddens at the Targhee Bluegrass Festival August 13, 2017

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!

The Soundtrack4Life Concert Series: Rhiannon Giddens & Carolina Chocolate Drops

A Double Bill of Rhiannon Giddens in Concert first as a solo artist at the TFF Festival in Germany during the summer of 2015 and secondly as a member of Carolina Chocolate Drops at the Jazz Pulsation Festival in Nancy, France back in 2012.

Rhiannon Giddens
TFF
Rudolstadt, Germany
July 2015

Carolina Chocolate Drops

Jazz Pulsation

Nancy, France 16/10/12

Bonus (Click on the Link)
Another Time, Another Place Concert Playlist .
Concert features The Punch Brothers, Gillian Welch, Dave Rawlings Machine, The Milk Carton Kids, Oscar Issac, Jack White, Marcus Mumford, Rhiannon Giddens, and The Avett Brothers.
This concert was performed to celebrate the film Inside Llewyn Davis.

Tomorrow Is My Turn - Rhiannon Giddens (February 2015)

Tomorrow Is My Turn - Rhiannon Giddens

Nonesuch

Produced by T Bone Burnett

Released 10th February 2015

US Chart #53

US Folk Albums #4

 

Track listing and Writers
1.     "Last Kind Words"  - Geeshie Wiley     4:13
2.     "Don't Let It Trouble Your Mind"  - Dolly Parton     3:39
3.     "Waterboy" - Jacques Wolfe     3:45
4.     "She's Got You" - Hank Cochran     4:17
5.     "Up Above My Head" - Sister Rosetta Tharpe     3:09
6.     "Tomorrow Is My Turn" -  Charles Aznavour, Marcel Stellman, Yves Stephane     4:37
7.     "Black Is the Color" -  Rhiannon Giddens     3:45
8.     "Round About the Mountain" - Traditional     3:30
9.     "Shake Sugaree" - Elizabeth Cotten     4:24
10.     "O Love Is Teasin'" - Traditional     4:32
11.     "Angel City" - Rhiannon Giddens     3:52

Watching Jools Holland's Hootenanny from New Year's Eve on the BBC was as usual a bizzare mix of artists, some good, others not so good. One artist did stand out though and I hadn't heard of her before (well actually I had but I didn't equate the person I was watching with the band I had heard her sing with before) - Rhiannon Giddens. The group I'd heard her sing with before was the Carolina Chocolate Drops, but obviously not having heard more than maybe four or five songs a number of years ago, I didn't at first realise she was the same person I was watching pull off a rousing St James Infirmary Blues with Sir Tom Jones.

So, a year late to the party, but hey that's okay. It's always good to discover something new even when it's a bit old! I think I'm going to do a few posts today that feature her music, so be prepared! She seems to crossover into many different musical styles with the album and it's good to see that T Bone Burnett was involved as that man has a great eye and an even better ear for talent.