Rhiannon Giddens Vinyl Records
On her own and as a member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Rhiannon Giddens has explored the depths of folk music, specializing in how old-timey songs and forms still have resonance in the modern world. Giddens' music functions as a commentary upon and expansion of the known folk songbook. Her aesthetic made the Carolina Chocolate Drops' two albums for Nonesuch in the early 2010s seem startling and fresh, but not long after the 2012 release of Leaving Eden, she went solo. Tomorrow Is My Turn, her 2015 solo album, found Giddens singing 20th century standards and was the first hint of how adventurous her solo career would be. In short order, she released Freedom Highway -- a 2017 album largely comprised of original compositions -- and There Is No Other, a 2019 collaboration with Francesco Turrisi that made her artistic sensibility explicit: there is no such thing as "other" in music, it's a place where all cultures are unified.