Rhiannon Giddens Takes Musical Journey ‘Home’ on New Album Coming in April
Stacy Chandler
Posted On February 10, 2021
Photo by Karen Cox
Rhiannon Giddens has announced a new album, They’re Calling Me Home, an exploration of the concept of “home” through the lens of the global pandemic.
Featuring Giddens’ partner, Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, the album was recorded in a studio in Ireland, where Giddens and Turrisi have been living since touring and travel shut down last March. It will be released April 9 on Nonesuch. Guest musicians include Congolese guitarist Niwel Tsumbu (also living in Ireland during the pandemic) and Irish traditional musician Emer Mayock on flute, whistle, and pipes.
Traditional songs figure prominently on the track list, including “I Shall Not Be Moved,” “Waterbound,” and “O Death,” and Italian lullaby “Nenna Nenna.”
Along with Wednesday’s announcement, Giddens — named one of No Depression’s artists of the decade in 2019 — released a video for “Calling Me Home,” written by pioneering songwriter Alice Gerrard.
“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,” Giddens said in the announcement. “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.”
Here’s the track list for They’re Calling Me Home, out April 9 on Nonesuch:
