Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson - What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow

Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson — What Did The Blackbird Say To The Crow

An album of North Carolina fiddle and banjo music by the Carolina Chocolate Drops duo

Rhiannon Giddens reunites with her former Carolina Chocolate Drops bandmate Justin Robinson on What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow, an album of North Carolina fiddle and banjo music, out April 18 on Nonesuch Records. Produced by Giddens and Joseph "joebass" DeJarnette, the album features Giddens on banjo and Robinson on fiddle, with the duo playing 18 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.

Giddens and Robinson recorded outdoors at Thompson's and Baker's North Carolina homes, as well as the former plantation Mill Prong House. They were accompanied by the sounds of nature, including two different broods of cicadas, which had not emerged simultaneously since 1803, creating a true once-in-a-lifetime soundscape. A video of "Hook and Line," a traditional tune from Joe Thompson's repertoire and filmed at his home in Mebane, NC, may be seen below. It is the first tune Thompson ever learned; Giddens and Robinson continued the legacy by learning it from him.