Rhiannon Giddens Instagram – I will be posting black history/excellence posts again for sure. Just wanted to report back on my little corner of the GRAMMYs, which happened yesterday. I was nominated for Best American Roots Performance, for the recording of “The Ballad of Sally Anne”, a heartbreaking song about a lynching, which I recorded in Ireland with Francesco Turrisi and Ben Rawlins, and was finished by Ebonie Smith, for Fiona Prine’s Oh Boy Records. It was written by Alice Randall, who has been working in Nashville for over 40 years, writing anthems for black women while there weren’t many of us allowed into the establishment to sing them. That was our win; the trophy itself went to someone else and that’s fine by me! There’s room for us all.
I took Alice as my date and we had a ball dropping nuggets of knowledge all down the red carpet, with my banjo in tow 🙂 (yes the 1858-replica banjo that graced the album of the year with its deep funky sounds… )
For me, being involved in this deeply cultural music is more than a career, it’s more than an album, it’s more than a single. It’s a mission to show how beautiful Americans can actually be together; it’s proof that we are more alike than we are different, and it’s a study in how we do not need a hyphen; if anything, American history itself needs a hyphen. We are America; America is us. And the groundwork that the folks before us laid, like Linda Martell yes, but also Lil Hardin, and Libba Cotten, and Joe Thompson, and Ray Charles; and folks laying all the groundwork right NOW, like Rissi Palmer, and Dena Ross Jennings, and Angela Wellman, and so many others, educating and welcoming and doing all the active things you do to build real community. It takes time; it takes humility; it takes interest in other people and other people’s success.
For me, saying their names, all of them, makes me feel grounded. For me, acknowledging that I would not be here without them, makes me feel stronger. The rising tide lifts all boats. | Posted on 04/Feb/2025 04:46:07
