Rhiannon Giddens Leads "Live With Carnegie Hall" Session With Francesco Turrisi

New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Rhiannon Giddens led a Live With Carnegie Hall session from Ireland with multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi on Thursday, which you can watch again below. In recognition of Juneteenth, Giddens and Turrisi examine the music and history of minstrelsy, the most popular form of entertainment in America during the 1800s, and its influence in the creation of the American cultural identity. They look at the global context of minstrelsy through the journeys of the banjo and the tambourine and examine what there is to reproach versus celebrate in the birth of American music. You can watch it again here:

Giddens will lead a banjo workshop titled "Rhythm in the Hand: Black Stringband and Minstrel Techniques for Fretted Banjos" as part of online Old Time Banjo Festival this Saturday at noon ET. She and Turrisi have been named ambassadors for Musicians Without Borders and will take part in the the Netherlands-based organization's Worldwide Music Day benefit concert this Sunday, from 3pm ET.

Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi released the Grammy-nominated album there is no Other on Nonesuch in 2019. It is at once a condemnation of "othering" and a celebration of the spread of ideas, connectivity, and shared experience. "This is acoustic roots music at its most glorious," exclaims Uncut, "and Giddens is fast becoming the genre's brightest star in the firmament."