Rhiannon Giddens - They're Calling Me Home [CD]

They’re Calling Me Home features several traditional songs that Giddens hasn't played for years, including some of the first old-time pieces she ever learned: "I Shall Not Be Moved," "Black As Crow (Dearest Dear)" and "Waterbound." The album also includes a new song Giddens wrote, “Avalon,” as well as an Italian lullaby, “Nenna Nenna,” that Turrisi used to sing to his infant daughter that took on new resonance during the lockdown.Giddens says of Alice Gerrard, the folk music pioneer, who wrote “Calling Me Home”: “Some people just know how to tap into a tradition and an emotion so deep that it sounds like a song that has always been around — Alice Gerrard is one of those rarities; ‘Calling Me Home’ struck me forcefully and deeply the first time I heard it, and every time since. This song just wanted to be sung and so I listened.”They’re Calling Me Home also includes two well known songs about death: “Amazing Grace” and “O Death.”The minstrel banjo, accordion and frame drums that have become characteristic of the pair’s sound are well represented on the album, but it’s the viola and cello banjo combination that captures unexpected emotion and intensity. Joining them at key moments are Congolese guitarist Niwel Tsumbu and Irish traditional musician Emer Mayock on flute, whistle, and pipes. Engineer Ben Rawlins was key to the shape and sound of the record while Giddens and Turrisi produced and Kim Rosen mastered.

Tracklist:

1. Calling Me Home (With Francesco Turrisi)
2. Avalon
3. Si Dolce E'l Tormento
4. I Shall Not Be Moved
5. Black As Crow
6. O Death
7. Niwel Goes to Town
8. When I Was in My Prime
9. Waterbound
10. Bully for You
11. Nenna Nenna
12. Amazing Grace

UPC: 075597915709
Label: Nonesuch
Release Date: 4.9.21
Format: CD