DESCRIPTION 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. Produced by Giddens and Joseph "joebass" DeJarnette, the album features Giddens on banjo and Robinson on fiddle, with the duo playing eighteen of their favourite 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 the album outdoors and on location 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. Tracks: CD
Rain Crow
Browns Dream
Hook and Line
Pumpkin Pie
Ducks Eyeball
Ryestraw
Little Brown Jug
Going to Raleigh
Country Waltz
Molly Put the Kettle On
Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss
John Henry
Love Somebody
Ebenezer
Old Joe Clark
Old Molly Hare
Marching Jaybird
Walkin in the Parlor

WARNER