Continuing what Garden & Gun has called a “banner year,” Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winner Rhiannon Giddens today released a new mini-documentary with performance videos to accompany each song for What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow. The film and video collection, available now on YouTube, offer an intimate look into the creation of her collaboration with fellow Carolina Chocolate Drops co-founder Justin Robinson, further illuminating their powerful tribute to the Black string band tradition of North Carolina.
The eighteen-track collection draws directly from that tradition, featuring Giddens on banjo and Robinson on fiddle as they play a mix of their favorite regional instrumentals and tunes with words. Many were learned from their late mentor, the legendary Piedmont musician Joe Thompson, and other musical heroes like Etta Baker and Evelyn Shaw. “‘Come to our porch, sit down, have some tea, and we’re just going to play some tunes,’” says Giddens. “We wanted to record that feeling.”
The new mini-documentary brings that intimate vision to life, taking viewers to the very porches and homesteads where the music was made. It captures the album’s unique soundscape, which was recorded outdoors and features the natural sounds of cicadas and birdsong. The experience is deepened by the new visual album, a playlist featuring one video for each of the eighteen tunes, made during the album’s recordings.
What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow, released in April on Nonesuch Records, has been praised by Bandcamp as a “scorching album of revved-up traditionals” and heralded by Rolling Stone for cementing Giddens’ status as “a foundational influence for a generation of younger Black roots musicians.” It was followed by Giddens’ sold-out inaugural Biscuits & Banjos festival in Durham, NC, a weekend of music, panels, biscuits and dancing that featured a highly anticipated reunion of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. From there, she launched a tour with her new band, The Old-Time Revue, playing to packed houses at venues like the Hollywood Bowl with special guests Steve Martin and Ed Helms, and a rare reunion of Our Native Daughters (w/ Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla and Allison Russell).
This flurry of creative work continues with several new projects. Giddens has co-authored a groundbreaking new songbook with music writer Kristina R. Gaddy, Go Back and Fetch It: Recovering Early Black Music in the Americas for Fiddle and Banjo. The book presents nineteen examples of early Black Atlantic music from the 1600s through the 1800s, making them accessible for today’s musicians and restoring the roots of Black music to the musical canon. Released earlier this month, the book has already become a #1 New Release in Ethnomusicology and is into its second pressing. Read more in a recent feature in the Oxford American: Giddens also recently performed with Paul Simon during The Juilliard School’s annual fall festival.
Looking ahead, Giddens will return to headline Carnegie Hall on May 8, 2026, as part of the “United In Sound: America at 250” series. She will be featured on an upcoming episode of the acclaimed PBS series Finding Your Roots with Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Giddens will continue her extensive touring schedule into the spring, performing with her band and with the Silkroad Ensemble, where she is Artistic Director. For all tour dates, visit rhiannongiddens.com/tour.
Rhiannon Giddens has made a singular, iconic career out of stretching her brand of folk music, with its miles-deep historical roots and contemporary sensibilities, into just about every field imaginable. A two-time GRAMMY Award–winning singer and instrumentalist, 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner, MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient, and composer of opera, ballet, and film, Giddens has centered her work around the mission of lifting up people whose contributions to American musical history have previously been overlooked or erased, and advocating for a more accurate understanding of the country’s musical origins through art. Her most recent solo release is 2023’s You’re the One, Giddens’ first album of all original songs; her banjo can be heard on the history-making song “Texas Hold ‘Em”; and she is the Artistic Director of Silkroad Ensemble. In addition to her musical pursuits, Giddens has published two children’s books featuring her lyrics, hosts the Aria Code podcast on WQXR, and has composed music for ballet and film, and two of her songs are featured in the hit video game Red Dead Redemption 2.
What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow Track List:
1. Rain Crow
2. Brown’s Dream
3. Hook and Line
4. Pumpkin Pie
5. Duck’s Eyeball
6. Ryestraw
7. Little Brown Jug
8. Going to Raleigh
9. Country Waltz
10. Molly Put the Kettle On
11. Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss
12. John Henry
13. Love Somebody
14. Ebenezer
15. Old Joe Clark
16. Old Molly Hare
17. Marching Jaybird
18. Walkin’ in the Parlor
TOUR DATES
October 10-11, 2025 – Mebane, NC – Mebane Arts & Community Center
March 10, 2026 – Bowling Green, OH – Bowling Green University*
March 12, 2026 – Bloomington, IN – Indiana University Auditorium*
March 15, 2026 – Chicago, IL – Harris Theater*
March 19-20, 2026 – Berkeley, CA – Zellerbach Hall*
March 22, 2026 – Fairfax, VA – George Mason University Center for the Arts*
March 26, 2026 – Rochester, NY – Kodak Center*
March 27, 2026 – Brookville, NY – Tilles Center Concert Hall*
March 28, 2026 – Princeton, NJ – McCarter Theatre Center*
April 16, 2026 – Boston, MA – Orpheum Theatre
April 18, 2026 – Boone, NC – Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts
April 21, 2026 – Ann Arbor, MI – Hill Auditorium
April 28, 2026 – Athens, GA – Hodgson Concert Hall
May 1, 2026 – Houston, TX – Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
May 2, 2026 – Austin, TX – Bass Concert Hall
May 5, 2026 – Philadelphia, PA – Miller Theater
May 8, 2026 – New York, NY – Carnegie Hall
* Performance with Silkroad Ensemble
