Rhiannon Giddens Releases First Solo Album in Six Years, You’re the One
Rhiannon Giddens’ You’re the One has been released on Nonesuch Records. The album is the GRAMMY, MacArthur and Pulitzer-winning singer, composer, and instrumentalist’s third solo studio album and her first of all original songs; her last solo album was 2017’s critically acclaimed Freedom Highway.
This collection of 12 songs written over the course of Giddens’ career bursts with life-affirming energy, drawing from the folk music that she knows so deeply, as well as its pop descendants. The album was produced by Jack Splash (Kendrick Lamar, Solange, Alicia Keys, Valerie June, Tank and the Bangas) and recorded at Criteria Recording Studios in Miami with a band composed of Giddens’s closest musical collaborators from the past decade alongside musicians from Splash’s own Rolodex, topped off with a horn section, making an impressive ten- to twelve-person ensemble.
Rhiannon Giddens has also shared a new single from her new album, “Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad”. The track is an R&B blast that takes a titan for inspiration. “I listened to a bunch of Aretha Franklin, and then turned to fellow Aretha-nut Dirk Powell and said, ‘Let’s write a song she might have sung!,'” Giddens recalls.
Listen to “Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad”: https://youtu.be/hCLm34zR-7Y
Rhiannon and her band performed “Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad” on the Today Show this morning, in addition to the album’s title track “You’re the One.” She will be the featured performer on CBS Saturday this Saturday, August 19 as well.
You’re the One represents Giddens’ first album of all original songs and discussed her career and the making of this album in a New York Times profile that ran last week. Read here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/07/arts/music/rhiannon-giddens-youre-the-one.html
It’s been a remarkable 2023 for Giddens. The multi-faceted artist, GRAMMY-winner, and MacArthur fellow was recently awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music for her collaborative opera, Omar. Giddens is also featured on Fast Company‘s Most Creative People in Business list and is a host on Arts Talk, a new PBS program on which she, Elvis Costello, and Brian Stokes Mitchell discuss their careers.
The album is earning raves, with Rolling Stone saying: “One of Americana music’s most vital voices expands her sound without abandoning her roots.” You’re the One has also been celebrated by NPR’s All Songs Considered, Pitchfork, Variety and more.
Giddens also recently announced the biggest headlining shows of her career, including performances at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in September, plus the Barbican Centre in London, the Beacon Theatre in New York City, and the Ace Theater in Los Angeles next spring (dates below).
You’re the One features twelve songs, written over the course of Giddens’ career, that burst with life-affirming energy, drawing from the folk music that she knows so deeply, as well as its pop descendants. It was recorded with a band composed of Giddens’s closest musical collaborators from the past decade alongside musicians from producer Splash’s own Rolodex, topped off with a horn section, making an impressive ten- to twelve-person ensemble. The collaborators include Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi plus American fiddler Dirk Powell, bassist Jason Sypher, and Congolese guitarist Niwel Tsumbu. The album features electric and upright bass, conga, Cajun and piano accordions, guitars, a Western string section, and Miami horns, among other instruments, capturing the inclusive spirit that channels through all of her work.
As Pitchfork has said, “Few artists are so fearless and so ravenous in their exploration”—a journey that has led to NPR naming her one of its 25 Most Influential Women Musicians of the 21st Century and American Songwriter calling her “one of the most important musical minds currently walking the planet.” Giddens’ previous album, They’re Calling Me Home, won the GRAMMY for Best Folk Album in 2022, making her a two-time winner and eight-time nominee.
