Now & Then: Rhiannon Giddens’s Hope Is the Thing with Feathers and the reach of Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues
Rhiannon Giddens has spent much of her career expanding the commonly told history of American folk music, particularly the role Black musicians played in shaping it. Hope Is the Thing with Feathers continues that work while emphasizing ensemble performance and songs connected to North Carolina. Odetta’s 1956 debut, Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues, offers a useful earlier reference point. Both records mix interpretation with a strong sense of ownership over the material.
Nashville-based singer, songwriter, and guitarist Mary Gauthier doesn’t make records often. The newly released Reckoning is her first since 2022’s Dark Enough to See the Stars, which was her first since 2018’s Rifles & Rosary Beads. Like its predecessors, the new one was worth the wait. Gauthier’s arresting vocals, which are front and center throughout […]
