Rhiannon Giddens

My work as a whole is about excavating and shining a light on pieces of history that not only need to be…

— Rhiannon Giddens

I love the U.K. folk scene. In the States, nobody knows what to do with me. There's still a very narrow definition…

— Rhiannon Giddens

For me the bare feet are grounding. I'm connected to the Earth in a way that I cannot be any other way.

— Rhiannon Giddens

We have been fed so many false narratives, many of them racialized to deliberately feed a racist agenda. It's important to address…

— Rhiannon Giddens

I had this dream like years ago. I had this dream - I wanted to be in an all-black string band.

— Rhiannon Giddens

I'm not an urban black person. I'm a country black person.

— Rhiannon Giddens

To sit in my concert and be uncomfortable is brave. Because you could always leave, you know?

— Rhiannon Giddens

I'm really interested in history and when I looked into the settlers who came to my home state, North Carolina, I found…

— Rhiannon Giddens

That was the special thing about the Carolina Chocolate Drops. We didn't want to do music full-time. We weren't looking to get…

— Rhiannon Giddens

There is a black folk music audience. They're just very small.

— Rhiannon Giddens

When I got into college, I got into operatic vocalists, like Leontyne Price.

— Rhiannon Giddens

People seem ready for a more in-depth idea of folk music, culture and history.

— Rhiannon Giddens

Know thy history. Let it horrify you; let it inspire you.

— Rhiannon Giddens

Othering people is something that humans have done for ever.

— Rhiannon Giddens

When I first heard the minstrel banjo - I played a gourd first - I almost lost my mind. I was like,…

— Rhiannon Giddens

History is my biggest teacher.

— Rhiannon Giddens

The first band I was in out of college was a Celtic band, and I had to learn to sing with a…

— Rhiannon Giddens

If I wasn't touring, I wasn't making money. When I got the MacArthur, I could get off that hamster wheel. It meant…

— Rhiannon Giddens

I remember so vividly the first time I saw one of Marshall Wyatt's superb compilations called 'Folks He Sure Do Pull Some…

— Rhiannon Giddens

I really got into Gaelic music and the whole sound of it, and I got to go to Scotland.

— Rhiannon Giddens

Being mixed in the South, that's a struggle that everybody deals with differently. Some people go careening to one side or the…

— Rhiannon Giddens

Separation in culture and arts does nobody any favors except for the people in power. That's just it... So I feel like…

— Rhiannon Giddens

People say, 'I'm tired of thinking about race, it's a drag.' Yeah, well, welcome to my life! I don't care who you…

— Rhiannon Giddens

I don't consider myself at the kind of stature of somebody who can play five cities on a tour, and that's it.…

— Rhiannon Giddens

So my mom's folks are from one side of Greensboro - and, you know, outside of Greensboro. And my dad's folks, the…

— Rhiannon Giddens