THE NEW BASEMENT TAPES

LOST ON THE RIVER

ELECTROMAGNETIC, 2014

Overseen by T Bone Burnett, Giddens takes her place alongside Elvis Costello, Jim James, Taylor Goldsmith and Marcus Mumford to create music for newly discovered Basement Tapes-era Dylan lyrics I have two crossroads in my life. The first was meeting Joe Thompson and the second was deciding to do the Another Day Another Time show [2013’s all-star benefit gig in New York City, devised by the Coen brothers and T Bone Burnett for Inside Llewyn Davis]. When T Bone invited me to do the concert, he basically pushed me off a cliff and I had to learn to fly real quick. It was the first time I’d done anything by myself. That led to an invite to Lost On The River. T Bone gave us all the same lyrics and I thought we were going to be writing together and then recording. But then Elvis came in with demos, Jim James had completely arranged demos and Taylor Goldsmith came in with full songs. And I had just a song and an idea. I’d written my slave narrative songs by this point, which I recorded later, but I felt out of my depth in every way. I was sitting there with my minstrel banjo and everyone else had electric guitars and Mellotrons and stuff like that. So I was just thinking, ‘Oh Jesus, why am I here?’ I had lots of insecurities and I was also the only woman and the only person of colour. That was tough too. I’d been in a black string band for years and all of a sudden I’m making music in the exact opposite situation. I learned a lot from overcoming those obstacles, which is where “Angel City” comes from on Tomorrow Is My Turn. I wrote that at the end of the …Basement Tapes experience.