I've been getting interested in reimagining folk songs and writing songs that should have existed but didn't, particularly around the Civil War when black voices were muted and only allowed particular channels.
Interpretation
Rhiannon Giddens expresses her desire to give voice to untold stories from the Civil War era through her music.
In this quote, Rhiannon Giddens reflects on her creative process of reinterpreting traditional folk songs and composing new pieces that imagine the voices and experiences of marginalized groups during the Civil War. She emphasizes the importance of resurrecting silenced narratives, particularly those of black individuals who were historically overlooked in mainstream music and culture, thereby highlighting the urgent need to acknowledge and celebrate their stories through artistic expression.
In practice
During a lecture on music history, this quote can be used to illustrate how artists reshape narratives.
When I first heard the minstrel banjo - I played a gourd first - I almost lost my mind. I was like, Oh, my god. And then I went to Africa, to the Gambia, and studied the akonting, which is an ancestor of the banjo, and just that connection to me was just immense.
I think it's important that everybody has access to music, and not just people who live in cities or who can afford to drive to the nearest city.
In order to understand the history of the banjo, and the history of bluegrass music, we need to move beyond the narrative we've inherited, beyond generalizations that bluegrass is mostly derived from a Scotch-Irish tradition with influences from Africa. It is actually a complex Creole music that comes from multiple cultures.
The question is not how do we get diversity into bluegrass, but how do we get diversity back into bluegrass?
Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.
I'd bite off the Beatles, or anybody else. It's all one world, one planet and one groove. You're supposed to learn from each other, blend from each other, and it moves around like that.
Jazz is there and gone. It happens. You have to be present for it. That simple.
It was my 16th birthday - my mom and dad gave me my Goya classical guitar that day. I sat down, wrote this song, and I just knew that that was the only thing I could ever really do - write songs and sing them to people.
That's what my music does for me. It makes people happy. When I play, I thank the Lord I've never seen someone walk away from a Dick Dale dance not having a good time. That's what it's all about.
It's always beautiful to sing with other great voices. I like voices in general. It's a big privilege to have great singers next to me.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.