Singer-songwriter Rhiannon Giddens is the co-founder of the GRAMMY award-winning string band Carolina Chocolate Drops, in which she also plays banjo and fiddle. In 2016, she earned the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass, and in 2017 she released Freedom Highway (follow-up to her acclaimed, GRAMMY-nominated solo album Tomorrow Is My Turn); had a recurring role on the CMT show Nashville; delivered a spellbinding keynote at the International Bluegrass Music Association business conference; and earned a MacArthur Genius Grant. She began gaining recognition as a solo artist when she stole the show at the T Bone Burnett–produced Another Day, Another Time concert at New York City’s Town Hall in 2013. Her elegant bearing, prodigious voice, and fierce spirit shine through in her performances and her songwriting, and she masterfully blends American musical genres like gospel, jazz, blues, and country, showcasing her extraordinary emotional range and dazzling vocal prowess. She will perform with a full band at this concert.
Opening this show will be Amythyst Kiah, a professed Southern Gothic, alt-country blues singer/songwriter based in Johnson City, TN whose commanding stage presence is only matched by her raw and powerful vocals—a deeply moving, hypnotic sound that stirs echoes of a distant and restless past. Kiah’s ability to cross the boundaries of blues and old-time through reinterpretation is groundbreaking and simply unforgettable.
Concert schedule:
8:00-8:30 Amythyst Kiah
8:30-8:45 Intermission
8:45-10:15 Rhiannon Giddens
