Rhiannon puts Black back into Bluegrass at Sligo Live
GRAMMY Award winning American musician Rhiannon Gidden, acclaimed for her powerful songs targeting everything from police shootings to slavery, has been announced for this year’s Sligo Live Festival.
The 41-year-old singer-songwriter is the co-founder of the Grammy award winning string band Caroline Chocolate Drops in which she also plays banjo and fiddle.
Giddens’ critically acclaimed solo debut (and Grammy nominated) album Tomorrow Is My Turn masterfully blends gospel, jazz, blues, and country, showcasing her extraordinary emotional range and dazzling vocal prowess.
Her follow-up album Freedom Highway, released in February, 2017, is an exploration of African-American experiences.
It includes nine original songs Giddens wrote or co-wrote along with a traditional song and two civil rights-era songs, “Birmingham Sunday” and Staple Singers’ well-known “Freedom Highway,” from which the album takes its name.
Giddens’ recent televised performances include The Late Show, Austin City Limits, Later… with Jools Holland, and both CBS Saturday and Sunday Morning. She performed for President Obama and the First Lady on a White House Tribute to Gospel, along with Aretha Franklin and Emmylou Harris Giddens received the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Singer of the Year and has won the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Bluegrass and Banjo in 2016.
Giddens, who studied opera at Ohio’s prestigious Oberlin Conservatory also made her acting debut with a recurring role on the recently revived television drama Nashville.
Rhiannon Giddens will perform live in concert in Sligo on Sunday, 28th October 2018 at the Hawk’s Well Theatre.
Tickets €28.00 + s.c. (€2) are on sale from www.sligolive. ie and from the Hawk’s Well Theatre, Sligo (071 916 1518) or in person.