When Rhiannon Giddens steps onstage Tuesday for her first performance at the recently revamped Longhorn Ballroom, the music promises to be extraordinary 鈥� and unusually timely.
Giddens is one of many Black artists who have spent years trying to correct misconceptions about the history of country and folk music, specifically, the prevailing assumption that the history of those genres is almost completely white.
Ahead of her show at one of Dallas鈥� most historic country venues, efforts to set the record straight on race have finally gone mainstream. And for that, there鈥檚 one massively famous Texan to thank.
鈥淲hen Beyonc茅 came along and shone the light on this history the way only somebody with her status can do, it was ready to blow up because of the enormous and very, very hard-working group of people who鈥檝e been keeping these questions alive,鈥� says Giddens. 鈥淣ow there鈥檚 a light on all that work, with a lot of those same people finally getting to do interviews in the wake of "Cowboy Carter" and talking about it in super beautiful ways.鈥�
She starts listing names of advocates for inclusion and racial progress within country鈥檚 often homogenous bounds 鈥� Rissi Palmer, artist and host of Apple Music鈥檚 "Color Me Country"; songwriter and author Alice Randall; Holly G, journalist and founder of the Black Opry. But Giddens鈥� modesty obscures her own mammoth, zeitgeist-shifting contributions to the genre over the past two decades. It is Giddens鈥� banjo and viola that make up the irrepressible groove on "Cowboy Carter鈥檚" lead single and now Hot 100 No. 1 鈥淭exas Hold 鈥楨m.鈥� That鈥檚 just three minutes and 53 seconds, though, of the multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter鈥檚 prolific and wide-ranging work.
Giddens, a two-time Grammy winner and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, can be heard everywhere from the soundtrack to "Red Dead Redemption 2," one of the most popular video games of all time, to the opera house: "Omar," an opera she co-composed with Michael Abels, won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Her most recent album as a soloist, last year鈥檚 You鈥檙e The One, was her first of all original songs; it was nominated for two Grammy awards. She鈥檚 worked with everyone from T. Bone Burnett to Allen Toussaint to Ren茅e Fleming, spanning genre with clarity and a deep sense of musical history that goes back far beyond even the earliest recorded and commercial music.
The North Carolina native鈥檚 road to the spotlight started as the co-founder of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, an ensemble that made waves for the way it interpreted and reframed early Black American musical traditions including, notably, the often-overlooked tradition of Black string bands. The success of that band, which eventually opened for acts like Taj Mahal and Bob Dylan, helped open the door for a number of Black folk, country and Americana artists.
It also anticipated the work of people like local scholar, artist and activist Brandi Waller-Pace, who founded Decolonizing the Music Room as well as the Fort Worth African-American Roots Music Festival. Giddens is on the board of Decolonizing the Music Room, and has been a big supporter of Waller-Pace鈥檚 efforts. 鈥淭here is a burgeoning renaissance within the Black Americana, roots, old time, country 鈥� wherever you want to call them 鈥� musics,鈥� Giddens says. 鈥淏ut we need spaces within the Black community to be together and draw from each other, to then go back to the mostly white spaces that we all exist in. It鈥檚 a very important piece of cultural work that she鈥檚 doing, and it needs to be supported in a way that鈥檚 commensurate with that importance.鈥�
In her own work, Giddens is once again pushing outward. She is in the process of writing a book, "When the World鈥檚 on Fire: How a Powerless Underclass Made the Powerful Music That Made America." 鈥淲here I鈥檓 at is looking at the fullness of the working-class, cross-cultural collaboration that really is the foundation of this music,鈥� she says.
鈥淏lack people didn鈥檛 invent country music, nor did white people invent country music,鈥� Giddens continues. 鈥淚t was born out of an incredibly complex, multi-layered collaboration that went on over two centuries. How do we pull solidarity from our shared histories, so that we realize the same patterns are happening today to make us turn against each other so the same rich people can stay rich?鈥�
That鈥檚 just a sampling of the deep thinking and rich history that will be channeled into Giddens鈥� set next Tuesday. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got a good story we鈥檙e telling with these tunes right now, and that鈥檚 what we like,鈥� says Giddens. 鈥淭he story, and the energy.鈥�
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