About The Drops

Rhiannon Giddens

“We’re first and foremost entertainers and musicians. The other stuff enriches, deepens the experience - but if you can’t enjoy the music, we aren’t doing our job.”

It’s hard to contain the energy and enthusiasm of Rhiannon Giddens. Her life story reads like a post-modern novel with overlapping plots. Talents and fascinations, whims and obsessions tumble over each other and pour out in a fiery stage performance rooted in disciplined virtuosity. It’s the training of opera overflowing into the unchained world of old-time music.

“I’m just glad that I didn’t know how much was involved,” Rhiannon says of her decision to study opera. “Same thing with fiddle!”

This is the story in a nutshell. Rhiannon’s father was a classically-trained singer whose legacy was a warning not to study voice before the age of 16. So Rhiannon waited until she was 16 and set off for choral camp. It was great, so she applied to Oberlin College and took on the deepest part of the classical vocal river, opera. “I did five operas and three main roles,” Rhiannon summarizes, “I got into it pretty hardcore.”

So hardcore that she decided to take some time off. That’s when Rhiannon “eased into the folk world,” as she puts it, although the sequence is not quite so clean. Rhiannon had already been sparked by a flyer at Oberlin advertising English Country Dancing. “I’m a Jane Austin fan and that’s what they do in her books. Turned out to be contra.”

Back home with a day job in graphic design, Rhiannon began to attend weekly contra dances, moving rapidly from just dancing to calling. It was one quick step more and a slippery slope into playing the music. “I decided I wanted to play fiddle” Rhiannon says in a matter of fact voice, “so I went into a store in Greensboro and picked one off the wall, gave it a draw and bought it. It was a cheap Chinese fiddle – hard to play, but that toughens you up.”

Hands on the fiddle, Rhiannon began to mix it up, singing as always with her sister,  Lalenja Harrington, joining up with Cherise McCloud (“who is a Mezzo”), forming a Celtic band, Gaelywand, and entering Scottish music competitions. She read about Joe Thompson in Cece Conway’s African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia, saw him perform, “and went down to his house and kinda played along.” Then Joe had a stroke but, interest sparked, Rhiannon heard about blackbanjos.com and hooked up with Sule Greg Wilson and Tom Thomas doing web work for the Black Banjo Gathering. After the gathering, Rhiannon added Sankofa, an old time/African roots band with Sule and Dom, to her list, exchanged contact info with Justin, and heard Joe Thompson was having music sessions at his house again. She also followed up on an invitation from Daniel Laemouahuma Jatta to visit Gambia, got a gig as a singing hostess at the Macaroni Grill and saved up the money for a trip to Africa. By 2006 the Carolina Chocolate Drops were moving to the top of the list. In 2010, the band was a full-time job – along with a new daughter who is already a veteran road warrior.

“It has been positive and negative that things have happened so fast,” Rhiannon reflects with her unusual mix of calm and excited ambition. “We are able to make a good living, but it was hard for us to jump into touring. We were not used to it and not all that savvy. We’re finding our footing now – but musically we have lots to cover and lots to explore.”