Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi

North Carolinian folk singer’s heartfelt love letter to her homeland.

Though she rose to fame playing oldtime music with Grammywinning group the Carolina Chocolate Drops in the 2000s, since going solo multi-instrumentalist Giddens has blossomed into a recording artist whose exploration of American folk music has shed light on its forgotten African roots. Recorded while locked down in Dublin last year, this is Giddens’ second collaboration with her romantic partner, Italian jazz multi-instrumentalist Turrisi, following in the wake of 2019’s There Is No Other. The pair’s musical chemistry is a potent one and best illustrated by the swirling Avalon with its layered vocals and the couple’s enthralling version of Amazing Grace, where Giddens moans plaintively over Turrisi’s bubbling hand drums. Bewitching, too, is the ambling instrumental Niwel Goes To Town, featuring Congo-born guitarist Niwel Tsumbu’s fretboard filigrees.