Rhiannon Giddens Adds New Fall Dates
in Support of Tomorrow Is My Turn, out Now on Nonesuch
Tour begins September 17 and includes 33 stops in North America through November
“A showcase for Ms. Giddens’s glorious voice … She can summon the power of a field holler, Celtic quavers, girlish innocence, bluesy sensuality, gospel exaltation or the pain of slavery. She can sing velvety, long-breathed phrases or rasp and yip like a singer from the backwoods long ago … a perpetually soulful marvel.” –New York Times
“Her voice-mobile, intelligent, ready to talk back to anyone’s presumptions-is always at the center here, guiding the story. Let me be the first to say it: Today is Rhiannon Giddens’ turn.”-NPR Music
Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens continues to tour this fall, in support of her solo album Tomorrow Is My Turn, starting Thursday, September 17 in Louisville, Kentucky. She plays through November, stopping in 33 cities. (For the full itinerary, including newly announced dates, which go on sale Friday, September 18, please see below.) Giddens gave a show-stopping performance of “Waterboy” from the nominated album at the Americana Awards in Nashville on September 16. Highlights from the Awards ceremony and concert will air on PBS’s Austin City Limits on November 21. In addition, she participated in NPR Music’s Songs We Love: Americana Edition, which will be posted to npr.org/music.
Tomorrow Is My Turn has received tremendous critical praise since its release on Nonesuch Records earlier this year, with the Wall Street Journal saying it “confirms the arrival of a significant talent whose voice and distinctive approach communicate the simmering emotion at the core of the songs. Thus, she may prove indispensable.” The Los Angeles Times calls it “a collection that should solidify her status as one of the bright new lights in pop music. … By conjuring all these famed, influential voices, the album underscores the point that Giddens is ready to take her place alongside them.”
“It was clear the first time I heard her that Rhiannon is next in a long line of singers that include Marian Anderson, Odetta, Mahalia Jackson, Rosetta Tharpe,” says producer T Bone Burnett. “We need that person in our culture.” As they began discussing a solo record, he told Giddens, “Now is your time. Why don’t you just make the record you’ve always dreamed of?”
“I had already started putting together a list of songs that didn’t really fit into the Chocolate Drops world,” Giddens explains. “I had this short list and at the top was ‘Tomorrow Is My Turn.’ Seeing Nina do it is revelatory. I was checking her out for some reason, to get a little deeper into what she did, and I stumbled across this YouTube video of her singing it live. I knew she’d gone through a lot of hard times, as so many people did in that time period. Watching her sing this song, with the words ‘tomorrow is my turn,’ I began to think about the struggle of her and women like her. It really hit me.” The significance of this song led Giddens to make it the title of the album as well. “Other songs started getting on my list and they were all by women or interpreted by women,” she says.
Tomorrow Is My Turn was recorded in Los Angeles and Nashville, with a multi-generational group of players whom Burnett assembled. Among them are fiddle player Gabe Witcher and double bassist Paul Kowert of label-mates Punch Brothers; percussionist Jack Ashford of Motown’s renowned Funk Brothers; drummer Jay Bellerose; guitarist Colin Linden; legendary backup singer Tata Vega; veteran Nashville session bassist Dennis Crouch; and Giddens’ Drops touring band-mates, multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins and beat-boxer Adam Matta. Giddens’ bandmates from Carolina Chocolate Drops-Jenkins, cellist Malcolm Parson, and multi-instrumentalist Rowan Corbett-also are part of her touring band for Tomorrow Is My Turn, along with drummer Jamie Dick and bassist Jason Sypher.
Tomorrow Is My Turn Track Listing
1. Last Kind Words (Geeshie Wiley)
2. Don’t Let It Trouble Your Mind (Dolly Parton)
3. Waterboy (Jacques Wolfe)
4. She’s Got You (Hank Cochran)
5. Up Above My Head (Sister Rosetta Tharpe)
6. Tomorrow Is My Turn (Charles Aznavour/Marcel Stellman/Yves Stéphane)
7. Black Is the Color (Traditional, arr. Rhiannon Giddens)
8. Round About the Mountain (Traditional, arr. Roland Hayes)
9. Shake Sugaree (Elizabeth Cotten)
10. O Love Is Teasin’ (Traditional, arr. Rhiannon Giddens)
11. Angel City (Rhiannon Giddens)
Rhiannon Giddens on Tour
9/17, Louisville, KY – Mercury Ballroom #
9/18, Bloomington, IL – The Castle Theatre #
9/19, Kent, OH – The Kent Stage#
9/23, Opelika, AL – Opelika Performing Arts Center #
9/24, Boone, NC – Shaefer Center for the Performing Arts
9/25, Durham, NC – Duke University
9/27, Washington, DC – Landmark Music Festival
9/28, Wilmington, NC – Brooklyn Arts Center #
9/29, Charleston, SC – Charleston Music Hall #
9/30, Birmingham, AL – Iron City #
10/2, Austin, TX – ACL Music Festival
10/3, New Orleans, LA – Tipitina’s #
10/4, Pensacola, FL – Vinyl Music Club #
10/6, Chattanooga, TN – Track 29 ^
10/7, Nashville, TN – Marathon Music Works ^
10/8, Memphis, TN – Minglewood Hall ^
10/9, Austin, TX – ACL Music Festival
10/11, Kansas City, MO – Folly Theatre &
10/12, Bloomington, IN – Buskirk-Chumley Theater &
10/13, Goshen, IN – Sauder Concert Hall &
10/14, Ann Arbor, MI – The Ark &
11/6, New Buffalo, MI – Silver Creek Event Center ^
11/8, Quebec, QUE – Theatre Petit Champlain ^
11/9, Montreal, QUE – La Tulipe ^
11/10, Portland, ME – Port City Music Hall ^
11/12, Ithaca, NY – Hangar Theatre ^
11/13, Beacon, NY – Town Crier Café
11/14, Boothbay Harbour, ME – The Opera House at Boothbay Harbor
11/15, Plymouth, NH – The Flying Monkey ^
11/17, Annapolis, MD – Rams Head On Stage ^
11/18, Richmond, VA – The National ^
11/19, Brookeville, NY – Tilles Center for the Performing Arts
11/20, Wilmington, DE – The Grand Opera House ^
#with special guest Leyla McCalla
^with special guest Birds of Chicago
&with special guest Bhi Bhiman
