It seems a long time ago that Rhiannon Giddens was exploring the history of old-timey black American music with the Carolina Chocolate Drops. With success and the passing of the years, it has in a way freed itself from the history that makes it up, but only in part. We are not going to confuse Rhiannon and Rhianna yet: it is still traditional music that interests her, but no longer only that of the USA. A meeting with Francesco Turrisi, who became her partner, was surely decisive here. Italian living in Ireland, Turrisi is a multi-instrumentalist with a contemporary and panoramic view of traditional music. In 2019, Francesco and Rhiannon released their first album together, There Is No Other. Fast forward to 2021 and they are pleased to announce the birth of the second, They're Calling Me Home.
Rhiannon Giddens - Calling Me Home (with Francesco Turrisi)
Rhiannon GiddensConceived in Ireland during lockdown, They're Calling Me Home is the album of a couple-duet deprived of travels, but not of dreams. The repertoire consists partly of traditional American and Irish songs, polyphonic Italian songs and original compositions. But it is above all Ireland that sings and enchants here. We hear its landscapes and its culture in a flute, a drum, a bagpipe, a violin. Neither Rhiannon Giddens nor Francesco Turrisi are from Irish stock themselves, yet they are at home here, perfectly at ease on the invisible border between traditional and world music.