Rhiannon Giddens traces the banjo from her ancestors to Beyoncé

September 21, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Rhiannon Giddens has spent her career doing something strange: making the banjo sound like what it actually is. On Beyoncé’s Texas Hold ‘Em, the instrument that opens the track is Giddens playing—a moment that became a cultural event. But for Giddens, the point was never the spotlight. It was that a Black audience finally heard the banjo as theirs.

Giddens sat down with Terry Gross on Fresh Air to talk about her new album Hope is the thing with feathers, her work reclaiming the banjo’s African roots, and what it means to carry a history that most people don’t want to look at.

The banjo is not a white instrument

The most persistent myth Giddens is trying to dismantle is that the banjo is a white Appalachian instrument. It is not. The banjo was invented in the Caribbean by enslaved Africans under conditions of unimaginable brutality. It came to North America with enslaved people and became part of the fabric of an emergent American culture. White musicians in the mountains adopted it so thoroughly that it became their own too, but the instrument’s origin is African diasporic.

“It starts as an African diasporic instrument invented in the Caribbean under duress in a time of unimaginable slavery,” Giddens said. “It becomes the fabric of the new emergent American culture.”

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What you'll learn

1 (01:47) **Step Away Blues and Reclaiming the Crone Years** - Giddens explains the song as a declaration of entering a new chapter of life where she no longer feels compelled to be a peacemaker or perform emotional labor for white audiences.
2 (06:53) **The Beyoncé Effect and Reaching Black Audiences** - Giddens describes how playing on Beyoncé's "Texas Hold 'Em" and consulting on the *Centers* soundtrack gave her access to mainstream Black audiences she had never reached before.
3 (11:13) **Using the Pop Platform for Historical Correction** - Giddens details how she used the attention from Cowboy Carter to advocate for the true cross-cultural history of country music, not for personal fame.
4 (13:56) **The Banjo's True Origins: From Africa to Appalachia** - Giddens traces the banjo from its invention in the Caribbean under slavery through its adoption by poor white communities in the Appalachian Mountains.
5 (15:20) **Elizabeth Cotton and Freight Train** - Giddens performs "Freight Train" on banjo and discusses Elizabeth Cotton's unique story as a left-handed, upside-down guitarist.
6 (23:36) **Growing Up Southern and Biracial** - Giddens describes her rural North Carolina childhood and how it shaped her musical identity.
7 (25:48) **Who Are You Dreaming Of? - A Jazz Detour** - Giddens plays a song that represents the closest she has come to jazz, written for a project that wanted to straddle the 1920s and 1930s.

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Guests on this episode

Terry Gross

Show Notes

A self-described "folkie to the bone," Giddens talks with Terry Gross about channeling her ancestors through her instrument, playing on Beyoncé’s country single “Texas Hold ‘Em,” and a connection between Irish folk music and Dolly Parton. Giddens also sings and plays banjo and fiddle throughout the interview. Her latest album, Hope Is the Thing with Feathers, takes its name from an Emily Dickinson poem.

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