Stepping away from
the Carolina Chocolate Drops
,
Rhiannon Giddens
teams up with producer
T-Bone Burnett
for her 2015 solo debut,
Tomorrow Is My Turn
.
Giddens
previously worked with
Burnett
on
Lost on the River
, an album where musicians added new music to lyrics
Bob Dylan
left behind during
The Basement Tapes
, and she also appeared in a concert he shepherded for the
Coen
brothers' folk revival opus
Inside Llewyn Davis
-- two projects steeped in history, as is
. Here,
expands upon the neo-string band of
by crafting an abbreviated and fluid history of 20th century roots music -- along with the older forms that informed it -- concentrating on songs either written or popularized by female musicians. As a torchbearer, not a revivalist,
Giddins
isn't concerned with replicating either the sound or feel of the past, so she comfortably slips a subdued hip-hop drum loop into "Black Is the Color," a standard here credited to
Nina Simone
, and blurs country and soul boundaries on
Patsy Cline
's "She's Got You." These two are the most overt tamperings with tradition but
is sly throughout
, giving
Elizabeth Cotten
's "Shake Sugaree" a deceptively lively little lilt and casting
Dolly Parton
's "Don't Let It Trouble Your Mind" as a rolling progressive folk tune that creates an invisible bridge between past and present. Much of
' work on
demonstrates the benefits of such careful, deliberate sculpting, making it a nice fit for
's handsome acoustica. Thankfully, the austereness that sometimes creeps into
T-Bone
's new millennial work is nowhere to be found; there's a warmth that radiates from
, which is crucial to the success of the record. Her easy, welcoming touch is a balm every time
is played, but it's upon successive spins that the intricacies of
' construction -- not to mention her subtle political messages -- begin to take hold. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine