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5 min readRhiannon Giddens: Reclaiming the Banjo, Reclaiming Black History
The first sound you hear on Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ’Em” is a banjo lick written and played by Rhiannon Giddens—a musician who studied opera in college, co-founded the Carolina Chocolate Drops, won a Pulitzer for co-writing an opera about an enslaved Muslim scholar, and now serves as artistic director of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. It is an unlikely path from opera to the banjo, but Giddens explains that her work has always been driven by a single mission: correcting the historical narrative around Black music in America, particularly the banjo’s African origins.
The Crone Years and the Weight of Representation
Giddens’s new album, Hope Is the Thing with Feathers, takes its title from an Emily Dickinson poem she set to music. But one track, “Step Away Blues,” which she co-wrote, is explicitly about entering what she calls her “crone years.” The word crone traditionally carries demeaning connotations for older women, but Giddens reclaims it. “Women who’ve gone through menopause tend to disappear in societies, including ours,” she says. “It actually is the time of great power, which is why of course it’s been under attack for all of patriarchal history.” At 49, Giddens says she is entering a chapter where she simply does not care as much about being the peacemaker. “I’ve spent a lot of my career being t
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00-00:18) **Introduction & Episode Overview** - Host Tanya Mosley introduces the two main segments: an interview with Rhiannon Giddens about her new album and the Black string band tradition, followed by an investigation into Sean Combs.
- 2 (00:28-00:50) **Rhiannon Giddens: Unlikely Path from Opera to Banjo** - Giddens is introduced as a MacArthur Fellow, Pulitzer Prize-winning opera co-writer, and artistic director of the Silk Road Ensemble who plays the opening banjo riff on Beyoncé's "Texas Hold 'Em."
- 3 (01:04-01:17) **Teaser: Diddy Investigation** - Rolling Stone reporter Shayna Roundtree is introduced to discuss her new book on the rise and fall of Sean Combs (Puffy, Puff Daddy, P. Diddy).
- 4 (02:37-03:55) **Full Introduction of Rhiannon Giddens** - Terry Gross details Giddens' career: co-founding the Carolina Chocolate Drops, writing songs from slave narratives, winning a Pulitzer for the opera *Omar*, and playing banjo on Beyoncé's *Cowboy Carter*.
- 5 (04:01-04:18) **Track: "Step Away Blues"** - The segment begins with a track from Giddens' new album, *Hope is the Thing with Feathers*.
- 6 (05:00-06:25) **Defining "Crone Years"** - Giddens explains her use of the word "crone" as a reclamation of power for women post-menopause, a period where society often makes them disappear.
- 7 (06:31-07:26) **The Meaning of "Step Away Blues"** - Giddens describes entering her "crone years" as a time where she no longer feels the need to be a peacemaker or mediator, and can speak more directly about difficult history.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Also, Rolling Stone investigative reporter Cheyenne Roundtree talks with Tonya Mosley about her new book, Bad Boy for Life. It tells the story of Sean Combs across the names he gave himself: Puffy, Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Love, and the systems that allowed his alleged abuse to go on for decades.
Film critic Justin Chang reviews the new film Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, starring Mahershala Ali.
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