012: Rhiannon Giddens - Tomorrow Is My Turn (2015)

November 27, 2018 / Amanda Rodgers

“Are we going to acknowledge that the question is not how do we get diversity into bluegrass, but how do we get diversity back into bluegrass?”

—Rhiannon Giddens

Discord & Rhyme is finally covering an album from the 2010s! But since we like to keep you on your toes, this album features some of the oldest songs in recorded music. American folk music has always been heavily influenced by black musicians, many of whom have been largely forgotten — especially the women. Rhiannon Giddens is aiming to change that by using her phenomenal voice as a spotlight and shining it on the artists that came before her. In this episode, Amanda leads the Discord & Rhyme team through Giddens’ 2015 album Tomorrow Is My Turn, a mix of well-known standards and obscure gems. The album is not only fantastic on its own, but also serves as a wonderful starting point for a larger discussion of the music that has come out of American history and the women who helped to shape it.

Miscellany

There are many brilliant singers who are impressive because they make it look completely effortless (even if it isn’t really). Rhiannon Giddens, on the other hand, shows you what’s possible when you take your massive God-given talent and then spend many years working your tail off to perfect it. The discipline and control she has over her voice are part of what makes her so amazing.
We scrapped our original teaser, which turned out to be fun in theory and unsuccessful in execution. But you’re in luck, because we’re going to make it available to our Patreon donors!
Amanda spoke briefly about race and feminism, but that’s worth a much larger discussion. For now, we’ll just say that the feminist movement has generally not been great at intersectionality, and the specific issues that black women face have often been overlooked. Check out our links below for more information.
The video for the Replacements’ “Bastards of Young” consists entirely of a stereo playing the song, a legendary “screw you” to MTV. It’s not exactly action-packed.
We spent a lot of time speculating about T-Bone Burnett’s production techniques, even though none of us really knows what we’re talking about. If you have any ideas about how he does that, @ us!
A weird thing in the Patsy Cline song we didn’t point out: Who gives their girlfriend an autographed picture, anyway?
Rhiannon Giddens is aiming to cure Amanda’s hatred of opera singing with her own podcast! (Which was probably not designed specifically for Amanda, but you never know.) Aria Code premieres on December 4 and we can only assume that it will be amazing.

Discord & Rhyme Roll Call

Amanda Rodgers (host)
Rich Bunnell (moderator)
Chris Willie Williams (hipster)
Brent Heard (special guest co-host)
Mike DeFabio (guest appearance)

Tomorrow Is My Turn tracklist

Last Kind Words
Don’t Let it Trouble Your Mind
Waterboy
She’s Got You
Up Above My Head
Tomorrow Is My Turn
Black is the Color
Round About the Mountain
Shake Sugaree
O Love Is Teasin’
Angel City

Other clips used

Rhiannon Giddens/Carolina Chocolate Drops:

Hit ‘Em Up Style
Daughter’s Lament
Mouth Music
Julie
Cornbread and Butterbeans

Others:

Geeshie Wiley - Last Kind Words Blues
Dolly Parton - Don’t Let it Trouble Your Mind
Odetta - Waterboy
Patsy Cline - She’s Got You
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Up Above My Head
Nina Simone - Tomorrow Is My Turn
Nina Simone - Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair
Florence Quivar - Roun’ About de Mountain
Elizabeth Cotten and Brenda Evans - Shake Sugaree
Jean Ritchie - O Love Is Teasin’
James Melton - Waterboy
Isobel Campbell - O Love Is Teasin’
Fleetwood Mac - Rhiannon
Les Baxter - Atlantis
Hurray for the Riff Raff - Living in the City

Songs we mentioned but didn’t clip

Rhiannon Giddens:

The Angels Laid Him Away
At the Purchaser’s Option

Others:

Supertramp - Rudy
Oompa Loompa
The Beta Band - Dry the Rain
Loretta Lynn - She’s Got You
Nina Simone - Tomorrow is My Turn (live)
Alison Krauss & Robert Plant - Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us
Guided by Voices - Hardcore UFOs
The Replacements - Bastards of Young
Elizabeth Cotten - Freight Train
Richard & Linda Thompson - Shoot Out the Lights

Band/album personnel

Jack Ashford - tambourine
Jon Batiste - Melodica
Jay Bellerose - drums, percussion
Mike Bub - acoustic bass
T Bone Burnett - acoustic guitar, producer
Keefus Ciancia - keyboards
Mike Compton - mandolin
Dennis Crouch - bass, acoustic bass
Richard Dodd - cello
Rhiannon Giddens - arranger, vocals
Hubby Jenkins - banjo, acoustic guitar
Paul Kowert - acoustic bass
Darrell Leonard - trumpet
Colin Linden - electric guitar
Lester Lovitt - trumpet
Adam Matta - beatbox
Tom Peterson - baritone sax
Noam Pikelny - banjo
Joe Sublett - tenor sax
Jim Thompson - tenor sax
Tata Vega - background vocals
Gabe Witcher - fiddle, acoustic guitar, horn arrangements, string arrangements, viola, violin
Jean Witherspoon - background vocals

Credits

“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of:

Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste
The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...
Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
Herbie Hancock - Hornets
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen
Rhiannon Giddens - Black Is the Color (this episode only)

You can buy or stream Tomorrow Is My Turn and other albums by Rhiannon Giddens at the usual suspects such as Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, and Amazon. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Follow Rich @zonetrope, Amanda @MagneticInk67, Brent @BrentRHeard, and Will left Twitter because it troubled his mind. Special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production, editing, and explaining the extremely weird melodica. See you next album, and be ever wonderful.

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tags / Amanda Rodgers, Brent Heard