Rhiannon Giddens’ new album You’re the One is out now (Nonesuch Records) and has been met with enthusiastic media response, including three national TV appearances in the past week. Her first album comprising all original music was produced by Jack Splash (Kendrick Lamar, Solange, Alicia Keys, Valerie June, Tank and the Bangas). It features twelve songs, written over the course of Giddens’ career, that burst with life-affirming energy, drawing from the folk music that she knows so deeply as well as its pop descendants.
Giddens had an eventful release week: She performed two songs on the Today Show (August 16) and three songs on CBS Saturday (August 19), and was profiled by CBS Mornings in an extensive interview that aired yesterday. Other recent interview features appeared in the New York Times, Vulture’s “A Long Talk,” NPR’s Morning Edition, the Associated Press, GRAMMY.com and Garden & Gun, with additional coverage and reviews from Variety, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Pitchfork, NPR Music and much more. Pre-release events included a conversation and acoustic performance at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville and a Grammy Museum event at National Sawdust in Brooklyn that included a Q&A with bassist and composer Christian McBride as well as a performance with her band. The biggest headlining tour of Giddens’ career starts September 16, including shows at The Ryman in Nashville, the Beacon Theater in NYC and the Ace Theater in Los Angeles. See below for the full itinerary.
Giddens has also shared a new video on the making of the album, watch here:
The multi-faceted artist, GRAMMY winner, and MacArthur fellow was recently awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music for her collaborative opera, Omar, along with Michael Abels.Giddens is also a host on Arts Talk, a new PBS program on which she, Elvis Costello and Brian Stokes Mitchell discuss their careers. Arts Talk begins broadcasting on PBS September 1, check local listings for air times. She was also recently featured on Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business list.
You’re the One was recorded with a band composed of Giddens’s closest musical collaborators from the past decade alongside musicians from producer Splash’s own Rolodex, topped off with a horn section, making an impressive ten- to twelve-person ensemble. The collaborators include Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi plus American fiddler Dirk Powell, bassist Jason Sypher, and Congolese guitarist Niwel Tsumbu. The album features electric and acoustic bass, conga, Cajun and piano accordions, guitars, a Western string section, and Miami horns, among other instruments, capturing the inclusive spirit that channels through all of her work. Music videos have previously been released for “You Louisiana Man” and “Yet To Be,” which features Jason Isbell. “ Yet To Be,’” says Pitchfork, “shows Giddens at her best: allowing the musical textures to enliven and elaborate the story she’s telling, drawing on threads from the past to communicate a pressing immediacy that feels all her own.”
As Pitchfork has also said, “Few artists are so fearless and so ravenous in their exploration”—a journey that has led to NPR naming her one of its 25 Most Influential Women Musicians of the 21st Century and American Songwriter calling her “one of the most important musical minds currently walking the planet.” Giddens’ previous album, They're Calling Me Home, won the GRAMMY for Best Folk Album in 2022, making her a two-time winner and eight-time nominee.
TOUR DATES:
September 13: University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA^
September 14: The Sheldon, St. Louis, MO^
September 15: Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN^
September 17: Athenaeum Center, Chicago, IL*
September 18: Michigan Theatre, Ann Arbor, MI*
September 19: St. Cecilia Music Center, Grand Rapids, MI^
September 20: Royal Conservatory, Toronto, ON^
September 22: House of Blues, Boston, MA^
September 23: University of Maine, Orono, ME^
September 24: FreshGrass MASS MoCa Festival, North Adams, MA
September 26: Keswick Theater, Philadelphia, PA^
September 27: University of Maryland, College Park, MD^
September 28: Carolina Theater, Greensboro, NC^
September 30: University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Wilmington, NC^
October 1: Modlin Center at University of Richmond, Richmond, VA+
October 2: Paramount Theatre, Charlottesville, VA*
November 5: George Mason University Center for the Arts Concert Hall, Fairfax, VA@
November 9: The Granada Theatre, Santa Barbara, CA@
November 10:Balboa Theater, San Diego, CA@
November 11: Soka Performing Arts Center, Aliso Viejo, CA@
November 12: The Soraya at CSUN, Northridge, CA@
November 15: Bing Concert Hall, Stanford, CA@
November 16: Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at UC Davis, Davis, CA@
November 17: Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley, CA@
November 18: Green Music Center, Sonoma, CA@
February 10, 2024: Maison de la culture de Creteil, Creteil, France
February 11, 2024: Doornroosje Main Hall, Nijmegen, Netherlands
February 13, 2024: Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands
February 14, 2024: Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, Belgium
February 17, 2024: Elb Philharmonie, Hamburg, Germany
February 18, 2024: Lido, Berlin, Germany
February 19, 2024: Kulturkirche Ost, Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
February 21, 2024: Barbican Centre, London, UK
February 23, 2024: Pavillion Theatre, Glasgow, UK
February 25, 2024: Vicar St., Dublin, Ireland
March 14, 2024: Worcester, MA, Holy Cross University
March 16, 2024: Beacon Theatre, New York, NY
March 19, 2024: State College, PA, Penn State
March 20, 2024: Cincinnati, OH, Memorial Hall
April 15, 2024: Vancouver, BC, Chan Centre
April 17, 2024: Beaverton, OR, The Reser
April 18, 2024: Beaverton, OR, The Reser
April 19, 2024: Seattle, WA, Meany Center
April 21, 2024: San Francisco, CA, The Fillmore
April 22, 2024: Monterey, CA, Golden State Theater
April 23, 2024: Santa Barbara, CA, Granada Theater
April 25, 2024: Ace Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
April 27, 2024: Tucson, AZ, The Rialto
April 28, 2024: Mesa, AZ, Ikeda Theater
April 30, 2024: Dallas, TX, Longhorn Ballroom
May 2, 2024: Austin, TX, Paramount Theatre
^with Adia Victoria
*with Charly Lowry
+with The Legendary Ingramettes
@Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens
