Folk & World
Rhiannon Giddens released “Hope Is The Thing With Feathers” on 18 September through Nonesuch. The album was recorded live at the Cypress House in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, during breaks from her 2024 and 2025 tours. The title comes from a line by Emily Dickinson.
Playing on it are Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, Congolese guitarist Niwel Tsumbu, double bassist Jason Sypher and Justin Robinson, her former bandmate in the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Her sister, Lalenja Harrington, also sings, alongside other family members.
The repertoire is four original songs, written with co-producer Dirk Powell, pieces by Ola Belle Reed, Elizabeth Cotten and Pura Fé, and traditional material.
“Art crosses generations and continents to complete itself, sometimes, in the hands of people who will never meet,” Giddens says.
It’s out on CD, digitally and on vinyl made from one-hundred-per-cent recycled material.
Text by Alba Puiggròs