Rhiannon Giddens With Francesco Turrisi: There Is No Other.

When I was in Bath last week to see Graham Nash, I noticed a poster in the venue announcing that Rhiannon Giddens was appearing there on November 26^th. Although I wasn’t familiar with her work, I thought it might be a good night out because I have heard great reports about her from internet friends. I bought myself a ticket and in order to get familiarised with her music I ordered a copy of her latest album which she has made with Francesco Turrisi. It arrived yesterday and I have listened to it twice now and I must say it is a very nice album indeed.

Rhiannon Giddens is from North Carolina although she also has a house in Ireland. I think it was a chance meeting in Ireland with multi-instrumentalist Italian jazz musician Francesco Turrisi that led to this collaboration. They discovered that their music complimented each other. That doesn’t surprise me because there are no boundaries in music. The music of different countries has been influencing each other for hundreds of years. The album was recorded at Windmill Lane studios in Dublin last year.

The opening track Ten Thousand Voices reminded me a little at first of the traditional song Nottamun Town that Fairport Convention recorded but this is an original song written by Rhiannon. She plays violin and Francesco plays lute. Gonna Write Me A Letter was written by Ola Belle Reed who was a famous banjo player from North Carolina and I would imagine quite an influence on Rhiannon. There is an annual Ola Belle Reed festival in North Carolina every year. Kate Ellis plays cello on this track and others. Wayfaring Stranger is a traditional ballad that has been recorded by many people including Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris. I love this version though. Rhiannon’s banjo playing makes me think of Karen Dalton who was also partly native American I believe. The title track There Is No Other is an instrumental with just banjo and frame drum and it is very powerful. I think I will enjoy hearing this track played live.

Trees On The Mountain was written by Carlisle Floyd who is an American opera composer born in 1926 who also hails from the Carolinas and based a lot of his work in the south. By complete contrast Pizzica Di San Vito is a very lively Italian traditional song that Rhiannon sings in the dialect of Puglia. I imagine that Francesco would have coached her in the singing. It almost sounds North African to my ears but again that is not surprising. Francesco plays percussion instruments that I haven’t even heard of before such as tamburella, tombak & colascione, although I imagine a tamburella is what Italians call a tambourine. Brown Baby is much more soulful and written by Oscar Brown Jr. As well as being a songwriter he was also a civil rights activist and Mahalia Jackson originally recorded this song. The lyrics are very appropriate to today's world. Briggs Forro is a lively instrumental featuring banjo and accordion which Rhiannon scats along to. The accordion sound reminded me slightly of Sharon Shannon. The tune was written by Thomas F Briggs who was a banjo teacher and wrote a guide to banjo playing in 1855.

Possibly my favourite track after two listens is Little Margaret. This is a variation of a traditional song that I have heard previously as Matty Groves by Fairport Convention and Little Musgrave by Christy Moore. This version is great and is just Rhiannon on vocals and Francesco on daf. I have never heard of a daf before, but I imagine it must be similar to what the Irish call a bodhran. Black Swan was written by Gian Carlo Menotti who was an Italian-American classical composer. I think the song must be from one of his operas. I’m On My Way is co-written by Rhiannon and Joe Henry who also produced the album. There is a nice video of this song which I have shared from youtube below if you want to see it. He Will See You Through is a very nice spiritually uplifting song to bring this album to a close. I am really looking forward to seeing Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi in November.