Rhiannon Giddens's new album, Freedom Highway, was released on Friday to great critical acclaim. Giddens spent the day at Sing Sing prison, working with and performing for inmates as a part of Carnegie Hall's Musical Connections program. "Giddens is an immensely talented singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist with the instincts of a musical historian," says WFUV, which named Freedom Highway its New Dig of the week. "On this new collection, she expertly and powerfully tells the stories of those who could not and bears witness to their struggle ... Freedom Highway is welcome, relevant and important." The Los Angeles Times says: "It’s a powerful collection made all the more visceral by the stripped-down instrumental accompaniment around full-force-gale vocals in big moments, and delicate pleadings when songs are at their most intimate."
Rhiannon Giddens's new album, Freedom Highway, was released on Friday to great critical acclaim, including the AP calling it "a rich tapestry with threads of blues, folk, gospel, soul, country and jazz," Uncut naming the "remarkably wise and timely new album" its Album of the Month, and the Guardian calling it a "powerful and timely set." Giddens marked the day with a visit to Sing Sing prison in upstate New York, working with and performing for inmates as a part of Carnegie Hall's Musical Connections educational program. You can read the New York Times coverage of the visit at nytimes.com.
New York City member-supported radio station WFUV has now named Freedom Highway its New Dig of the week. "Rhiannon Giddens is an immensely talented singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist with the instincts of a musical historian," says WFUV's Darren DeVivo. "On this new collection, she expertly and powerfully tells the stories of those who could not and bears witness to their struggle."
DeVivo concludes that the album's songs "acknowledge the nation’s resilience and efforts to heal: to not repeat the same mistakes of those who came before us. At a time when Civil Rights, Black Lives Matter, voting rights, and systemic racism are very much part of the American dialogue, the arrival of Giddens' Freedom Highway is welcome, relevant and important."
Read more at wfuv.org.
The Los Angeles Times's Randy Lewis spoke with Giddens about the new album.
"Her 2015 debut solo album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, was a vocal tour de force in which she put her voice to work on songs closely associated with female musicians who had influenced her: Edith Piaf, Nina Simone, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Odetta, Dolly Parton and several others," writes Lewis. Of the new album, he says: "It’s a powerful collection made all the more visceral by the stripped-down instrumental accompaniment around full-force-gale vocals in big moments, and delicate pleadings when songs are at their most intimate."
Read what Giddens has to say at latimes.com.
Rhiannon Giddens also spoke with New York magazine's Justin Davidson, who says: "Giddens has the lung power to hold her own with the legends, but she also pilots her voice through a sequence of vocal shades and colors." You can read that article at vulture.com.
To pick up a copy of Freedom Highway, head to iTunes, Amazon, Rhiannon Giddens's shop, or the Nonesuch Store, where it is available on CD, LP, MP3, FLAC, and HD digital. You can also listen to the album on Spotify and Apple Music.
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