You're The One

It’s a big time for Rhiannon Giddens, with news of a new album as well as a big new award to add to her shelf. "You’re The One", coming August 18th, 2023, on Nonesuch Records, is Giddens’ 3rd solo album, and her 1st with all original songs. The 12 songs pull from her folk music roots as well as more modern pop sounds. Jack Splash, who has previously worked with Kendrick Lamar, Alicia Keys, and Valerie June, was the producer.

Joining Giddens on "You’re The One" are her partner, multi instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, with whom she released 2021’s "They’re Calling Me Home", multi instrumentalist Dirk Powell and bassist Jason Sypher, both longtime collaborators, Congolese guitarist Niwel Tsumbu, and even a horn section from Miami, where the album was recorded. Jason Isbell makes a guest appearance on a song called “Yet To Be”.

“I hope that people just hear American music”, Giddens says. “Blues, jazz, cajun, country, gospel, and rock, it’s all there. I like to be where it meets organically. They’re fun songs, and I wanted them to have as much of a chance as they could to reach people who might dig them but don’t know anything about what I do. If they’re introduced to me through this record, they might go listen to other music I’ve made and make some new discoveries”.

The album’s 1st single is its title track, inspired by being a parent to 2 children, a now 14 year old daughter and 10 year old son.

“Your life has changed forever, and you don’t know it until you’re in the middle of it and it hits you”, Giddens says, remembering a bonding moment with her son not long after his birth. “I held his little cheek up to my face, and was just reminded, ‘Oh my God, my children, they have every bit of my heart'.”

Last month, Giddens’ name was among the winners of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize, an honor she shares with film composer Michael Abels for their opera "Omar", about enslaved people brought to America from Muslim countries, which debuted last year at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. Giddens has previously won 2 Grammys, 'Best Folk Album' for "They’re Calling Me Home", and 'Best Traditional Folk Album' for the Carolina Chocolate Drops’ "Genuine Negro Jig". In 2017 she received the prestigious 'Genius Grant' from the MacArthur Foundation, and she was named one of No Depression’s 'Artists Of The Decade' in 2019.

Last fall she published her 1st picture book, "Build A House", illustrated by Monica Mikai and based on a song Giddens composed to mark the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth. And last month the show 'My Music With Rhiannon Giddens' premiered on PBS, featuring conversations and performances with “some of the artists who are inspiring me the most these days”, she explains in a trailer for the show. The 2 episodes that have already aired, featuring Giddens’ Carolina Chocolate Drops bandmate Justin Robinson and Allison Russell, and more will be added.