Rhiannon Giddens & The Old-Time Revue
July 18 @ 5:30 pm - 9:30 pm
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Rhiannon Giddens & The Old-Time Revue
with special guest Hannah Mayree
Rhiannon Giddens & The Old-Time Revue is Giddens’ much anticipated return to her North Carolina roots and the old time music tradition that launched her career. Two-time GRAMMY, MacArthur “Genius”, and Pulitzer Prize winner Giddens has pulled together a remarkable band that represents an incredible array of talent and American musical traditions as a way to celebrate her new album What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow, a fiddle-and-banjo record made with her old Carolina Chocolate Drop collaborator Justin Robinson. Joining Giddens and Robinson on stage will be celebrated multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell, longtime bassist Jason Sypher, guitarist Amelia Powell, and bones player and rapper Demeanor. What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow features a mix of North Carolinian instrumentals and traditional songs, many learned from her late mentor, the legendary North Carolina Piedmont musician Joe Thompson. Thompson was one of the last musicians of his era and his community to carry on the southern Black string band tradition. Rhiannon Giddens & The Old-Time Revue pay homage to that legacy and shepherd it into a new era.
“This music doubles down on place, time, realness, and old-fashioned front porch music.” she says. “It’s a reminder that another way exists, with music made for your community’s enjoyment and for dancing–not solely for commercial purposes. This multi-generational band of chosen and blood family will draw on deep traditions from old-time to cajun to country to blues, all to bring audiences back home in place, in culture and in community with music you’ll feel in your bones.” Giddens’ new album, What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow, a collaboration with Justin Robinson, is out April 2025 on Nonesuch Records.
“A master folklorist, banjo virtuoso and vocal powerhouse” – NPR
“One of Americana music’s most vital voices.” – Rolling Stone
“Few artists are so fearless and so ravenous in their exploration.” – Pitchfork
“One of the most important musical minds currently walking the planet.” – American Songwriter
Hannah Mayree (they/them) is a creative facilitator and musician who’s work and art lends itself as a tool for redesigning and reconnecting to our roots as humans on this planet. A banjoist, multi-instrumentalist, producer and vocalist, Hannah shares original and traditional banjo compositions as well as harmonies through acoustic live vocal looping and interactive community song.
Hannah will be joined by the acclaimed singer Tonya Abernathy on vocals, Malayalam-American fiddler Miriam Hacksaw and the Bay Area’s own African and diasporic drummer and song carrier Kele Nitoto.
Hannah founded and creatively directs the Black Banjo Reclamation Project which is currently creating musical, cultural and land-based opportunities for Black, Afro-Diasporic communities around the world to work with the banjo as a tool for reclaiming ancestral wisdom and creating Afro-futures through folks arts.
