What Did The Blackbird Say To The Crow

LPA

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

LPB

1. Molly Put the Kettle On
2. Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss
3. John Henry
4. Love Somebody
5. Ebenezer
6. Old Joe Clark
7. Old Molly Hare
8. Marching Jaybird
9. Walkin’ in the Parlor

Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson’s collaborative new album What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow, is out today via Nonesuch Records. The eighteen-track collection draws directly from the Black string band tradition of North Carolina, where both artists were raised and musically shaped–and eventually became two-thirds of the Carolina Chocolate Drops (alongside Dom Flemons). Giddens has discussed this new album extensively in interviews with Rolling Stone, Garden & Gun, Variety, NPR Music, Stereogum and others. Next weekend, her first-ever music and cultural festival–Biscuits & Banjos in Durham, NC–will take place, featuring the debut of her new band, and a highly anticipated Carolina Chocolate Drops reunion. A new video for the album track “Rain Crow” is also out today.

Produced by Giddens and Joseph "joebass" DeJarnette, the album features Giddens on banjo and Robinson on fiddle, with the duo playing eighteen of their favorite North Carolina tunes: a mix of instrumentals and tunes with words. Many were learned from their late mentor, the legendary North Carolina Piedmont musician Joe Thompson; one is from another musical hero, the late Etta Baker, from whom they also learned by listening to recordings of her playing. Some tunes were learned from Evelyn Shaw of Harnett County, who learned from her father Lauchlin Shaw. Giddens and Robinson recorded outdoors at Thompson’s and Baker’s North Carolina homes, as well as the former plantation, Mill Prong. They were accompanied by the sounds of nature, including a roaring chorus of cicadas, creating a unique soundscape.

"‘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."

By performing music the way they learned it, in the specific place they learned it, Giddens and Robinson tap into the timelessness of the tunes, making them sing with fluidity and grace. "We are part of this ancient tradition; we are just the modern day purveyors," says Robinson.

“Rain Crow” is what Giddens calls “a great example of a tune that is exactly the sound of Piedmont fiddle and banjo music. Time and place snaps together and the very soil under our feet understands what the blackbird said to the crow.”

What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow arrives just one week ahead of Biscuits & Banjos, Giddens’ inaugural music festival, taking place April 25-27 in downtown Durham, NC. The sold-out, nonprofit festival celebrates the deep roots and enduring legacy of Black music, art, and storytelling with a full slate of concerts, workshops, square dances, panel discussions, free banjo lessons, and a celebrity biscuit bake-off. The weekend will feature a highly anticipated reunion performance from the Carolina Chocolate Drops along with performances by Taj Mahal, Adia Victoria, Leyla McCalla, Infinity Song, Don Vappie & Jazz Creole, and Toshi Reagon, with featured speakers like Alice Randall, Caroline Randall Williams, and Dr. Dena Ross Jennings.

For fans unable to attend in person, the festival will offer a livestream of Rhiannon Giddens’ Carolina Breakdown show, featuring the Carolina Chocolate Drops Reunion, via Veeps. This monumental performance marks the first time in more than a decade that all original and key members of the GRAMMY-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops will perform together on stage. The reunion not only brings back one of the most influential Black string bands of the 21st century but also serves as an opportunity to reconnect and reflect on the group’s profound impact on American roots music. The show will also debut Giddens' new band, The Old-Time Revue, live from the Durham Performing Arts Center at 6 PM on Saturday, April 26. The evening will be a historic celebration of tradition, artistry, and community, uniting past and present through music.

Giddens recently announced a number of new dates on her Rhiannon Giddens & The Old-Time Revue tour, which features Robinson and four other string musicians, including multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell. On June 18 they will headline the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, joined by special guests Our Native Daughters–in their first performance since 2022–as well as Steve Martin, Ed Helms, and more. Additional shows in July have been added to the itinerary as well.

Gidden’s PBS show–My Music with Rhiannon Giddens–is back for a third season, this time in Ireland with musicians who live there. Episodes will be posted online weekly on Thursdays starting May 1 in the US (on PBS) and on Fridays starting May 2 in Canada, the UK, and Australia / New Zealand (on Prime).

Giddens has also collaborated with banjo scholar Kristina R. Gaddy and University of North Carolina Press on a new book of Black music from the 1600s to 1800s called Go Back and Fetch It: Recovering Early Black Music in the Americas for Fiddle and Banjo.