This is my favorite show so far. Things just kind of fell into place with this one and it all seemed to work really well. There’s an old timey quality to the opening tracks that then slips into something a little crunchier later in the set. The whole thing keeps the vibe of last month’s Lazy Sunday thing. Honestly, after this set I was half tempted to lean into that and make the Lazy Sunday vibe the official sound of this project. Then Rhiannon Giddens messed all that up in a really beautiful way.
If you’re not familiar with Rhiannon Giddens it’s worth your time to look into her work. She’s still probably best known as a founding member of The Carolina Chocolate Drops, an ensemble that reasserted black voices in string band music, but her solo work since has been varied (Rhiannon studied opera at Oberlin Conservatory before forming CCD so she has a varied background) and award winning.
Back in April Rhiannon was the first guest on Adia Victoria’s new podcast Call & Response. It’s a wonderful 30 minute discussion that left me thinking about the stories we hear in the music we surround ourselves with. Then a little later I finally got a chance to see Reclaiming History: Our Native Daughters (trailer), a documentary about the Our Native Daughters project that Rhiannon put together (more on that below). That pushed forward a lot of the questions that the podcast had left me with.
After that I found myself wanting to experiment more with this project. To use it as a way that challenges the stories I surround myself with with the music that I listen to. This style of episode will likely continue to be the dominant style, but there will be detours into different areas. The next two episodes are examples of those detours. I’m not sure that they’re as clean as this episode, but I’m excited by the challenge. It’s leading me to dig back into older albums that I haven’t listened to in awhile and dig into my “I need to check that band out sometime” list. Both of which are good things in my book.
Track List/Show Notes
- Moon Meets the Sun– Our Native Daughters – Songs of Out Native Daughters
You can probably tell from the above comments that when Rhiannon Giddens drops a new project, I pay attention. When that project includes the likes of Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell; three black women who, in my opinion at least, are some of the most interesting new artists out there right now; I’m all over it! We’re going to hear from Leyla and Amythyst later in this set. Expect to hear something from Allison’s new album in a future episode. - Do Wrong Right– The Devil Makes Three – Do Wrong Right
- The Capitalist Blues– Leyla McCalla – The Capitalist Blues
- Why’d Ya Do It– Sierra Ferrell – Jeremiah/Why’d Ya Do It
- Preacher’s Daughter– The Whiskey Gentry – Please Make Welcome
- A Better South– American Aquarium – Lamentations
- Family Wars– EmiSunshine – Family Wars
- Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time– Becky Warren – War Surplus
- Black Myself– Amythyst Kiah – Wary + Strange
There’s a more acoustic version of this track on the Our Native Daughters album. When I first heard Amythyst rerecorded the track for this album I was a little disappointed because I wanted to hear something new. Then I heard this electric take on the song and I’m over the moon. Know that I’ve tried to shoe horn this track into several playlists, and I may have completely reengineered the back half of this set to finally include it here. May be. - Cold Civil War– Matt Woods – Natural Disasters
- Paradise– John Prine – John Prine
If this is your first encounter with the singing mailman John Prine, do yourself a favor and pick this album up. It’s a classic album with way to many classic songs for a debut. - Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards– Billy Bragg – Must I Paint You A Picture?
- Look The Other Way– Katie Pruitt – Look The Other Way
- Resist– Rev Sekou – In Times Like These
Once again, thank you for listening and if you’re enjoying this little project I’d love it if you can leave a comment. Is there a track that you really dug? Something that you think I should check out? I’d love to hear it, thanks.
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