They're Calling Me Home

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DescriptionExcerpt

Rhiannon Giddens' album They’re Calling Me Home was recorded with Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi during the COVID-19 lockdown in Ireland. The two expats found themselves drawn to and comforted by the music of their native and adoptive countries of America, Italy, and Ireland, which they recorded at a spare studio on a working farm outside of Dublin. The result is a twelve-song album that speaks to the longing for the comfort of home as well as the metaphorical call "home" of death. Grammy Award winner for Best Folk Album.

Description

Grammy Award Winner: Best Folk Album

Rhiannon Giddens’ new album, They're Calling Me Home, recorded with Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, was released April 9, 2021, on Nonesuch Records; vinyl on June 11. Giddens and Turrisi, who both live in Ireland when they aren’t on tour, have been there since March 2020 due to the pandemic. The two expats found themselves drawn to the music of their native and adoptive countries of America, Italy, and Ireland during lockdown. Exploring the emotions brought up by the moment, Giddens and Turrisi decamped to Hellfire, a small studio on a working farm outside of Dublin, to record these songs over six days. The result is They're Calling Me Home, a twelve-track album that speaks of the longing for the comfort of home as well as the metaphorical "call home" of death, which has been a tragic reality for so many during the COVID-19 crisis.

They're Calling Me Home features several traditional songs that Giddens hasn't played for years, including some of the first old-time pieces she ever learned: "I Shall Not Be Moved," "Black As Crow (Dearest Dear)" and "Waterbound." The album also includes a new song Giddens wrote, “Avalon,” as well as an Italian lullaby, “Nenna Nenna," that Turrisi used to sing to his infant daughter that took on new resonance during the lockdown.

Giddens says of Alice Gerrard, the folk music pioneer, who wrote "Calling Me Home," the video which for can be seen above: "Some people just know how to tap into a tradition and an emotion so deep that it sounds like a song that has always been around—Alice Gerrard is one of those rarities; 'Calling Me Home' struck me forcefully and deeply the first time I heard it, and every time since. This song just wanted to be sung and so I listened."

They’re Calling Me Home also includes two well known songs about death: "Amazing Grace" and "O Death."

The minstrel banjo, accordion and frame drums that have become characteristic of the pair’s sound are well represented on the album, but it’s the viola and cello banjo combination that captures unexpected emotion and intensity. Joining them at key moments are Congolese guitarist Niwel Tsumbu and Irish traditional musician Emer Mayock on flute, whistle, and pipes. Engineer Ben Rawlins was key to the shape and sound of the record while Giddens and Turrisi produced and Kim Rosen mastered.

They’re Calling Me Home is the follow-up to Giddens' 2019 album with Turrisi, there is no Other, of which Pitchfork said, "There are few artists so fearless and so ravenous in their exploration." Giddens earned a Grammy Award nomination (her sixth) for the album, which is at once a condemnation of "othering" and a celebration of the spread of ideas, connectivity, and shared experience.

In the past two years alone Rhiannon Giddens has been profiled in the New Yorker, featured on multiple magazine covers, and appeared in Ken Burns' Country Music on PBS and Samuel L. Jackson's Epix series Enslaved, among other appearances. She received the inaugural Legacy of Americana Award at the Americana Awards & Honors, composed her first opera (with a forthcoming debut at Spoleto Festival USA), shared remote performances for the Late Show with Stephen Colbert and NPR's Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, and was named Artistic Director of the Silk Road Ensemble.

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Produced by Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi
Recorded by Ben Rawlins at Hellfire Studios in Dublin, Oct 5—11, 2020
Mixed by Ben Rawlins at the Jericho Mile
Mastered by Kim Rosen at Knack Mastering, Ringwood, NJ

Design by Jeri Heiden at SMOG Design, Inc.
Album Cover and additional photos from the Opus Corvus series by Larry Blackwood
Interior photos by Karen Cox

ns_album_releasedate
Album Status
Artist Name
Rhiannon Giddens
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
Rhiannon Giddens, vocals, viola, minstrel banjo, gourd banjo, octave viola
Francesco Turrisi, accordion, frame drum, cello banjo, chitarra battente, tantan, tombak, calabash, vocals
Niwel Tsumbu, nylon string guitar
Emer Mayock, Irish flute, uilleann pipes

reissues?
new-release
Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
LP+MP3
Price
17.00
UPC
075597915785
Label
CD+MP3
Price
13.00
UPC
075597915778
Label
MP3
Price
9.00
UPC
075597915716
Label
96/24 HD FLAC
Price
10.00
UPC
075597915747

News & Reviews

  • The 2024 Big Ears Festival is next week, taking place in venues throughout downtown Knoxville, TN, March 21–24, with more than a dozen Nonesuch artists past, present, and future performing as part of the label's 60th anniversary celebrations. In addition to all of the music and film offerings, Big Ears also hosts a number of artist conversations with music journalists Ann Powers and Nate Chinen, including talks with Sam Amidon, Laurie Anderson, Darcy James Argue, Rhiannon Giddens, Mary Halvorson, Robin Holcomb, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Brad Mehldau, Davóne Tines, and Yasmin Williams.

  • "Rhiannon Giddens is one of those people where I feel like they have to start inventing new awards, because she's already won all of them," Song Exploder host Hrishikesh Hirway says of his guest. On the latest episode, Giddens talks about "You Louisiana Man," breaking down the song from her new album, You're the One. You can hear what she had to say about it here.

  • About This Album

    Grammy Award Winner: Best Folk Album

    Rhiannon Giddens’ new album, They're Calling Me Home, recorded with Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, was released April 9, 2021, on Nonesuch Records; vinyl on June 11. Giddens and Turrisi, who both live in Ireland when they aren’t on tour, have been there since March 2020 due to the pandemic. The two expats found themselves drawn to the music of their native and adoptive countries of America, Italy, and Ireland during lockdown. Exploring the emotions brought up by the moment, Giddens and Turrisi decamped to Hellfire, a small studio on a working farm outside of Dublin, to record these songs over six days. The result is They're Calling Me Home, a twelve-track album that speaks of the longing for the comfort of home as well as the metaphorical "call home" of death, which has been a tragic reality for so many during the COVID-19 crisis.

    They're Calling Me Home features several traditional songs that Giddens hasn't played for years, including some of the first old-time pieces she ever learned: "I Shall Not Be Moved," "Black As Crow (Dearest Dear)" and "Waterbound." The album also includes a new song Giddens wrote, “Avalon,” as well as an Italian lullaby, “Nenna Nenna," that Turrisi used to sing to his infant daughter that took on new resonance during the lockdown.

    Giddens says of Alice Gerrard, the folk music pioneer, who wrote "Calling Me Home," the video which for can be seen above: "Some people just know how to tap into a tradition and an emotion so deep that it sounds like a song that has always been around—Alice Gerrard is one of those rarities; 'Calling Me Home' struck me forcefully and deeply the first time I heard it, and every time since. This song just wanted to be sung and so I listened."

    They’re Calling Me Home also includes two well known songs about death: "Amazing Grace" and "O Death."

    The minstrel banjo, accordion and frame drums that have become characteristic of the pair’s sound are well represented on the album, but it’s the viola and cello banjo combination that captures unexpected emotion and intensity. Joining them at key moments are Congolese guitarist Niwel Tsumbu and Irish traditional musician Emer Mayock on flute, whistle, and pipes. Engineer Ben Rawlins was key to the shape and sound of the record while Giddens and Turrisi produced and Kim Rosen mastered.

    They’re Calling Me Home is the follow-up to Giddens' 2019 album with Turrisi, there is no Other, of which Pitchfork said, "There are few artists so fearless and so ravenous in their exploration." Giddens earned a Grammy Award nomination (her sixth) for the album, which is at once a condemnation of "othering" and a celebration of the spread of ideas, connectivity, and shared experience.

    In the past two years alone Rhiannon Giddens has been profiled in the New Yorker, featured on multiple magazine covers, and appeared in Ken Burns' Country Music on PBS and Samuel L. Jackson's Epix series Enslaved, among other appearances. She received the inaugural Legacy of Americana Award at the Americana Awards & Honors, composed her first opera (with a forthcoming debut at Spoleto Festival USA), shared remote performances for the Late Show with Stephen Colbert and NPR's Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, and was named Artistic Director of the Silk Road Ensemble.

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    Rhiannon Giddens, vocals, viola, minstrel banjo, gourd banjo, octave viola
    Francesco Turrisi, accordion, frame drum, cello banjo, chitarra battente, tantan, tombak, calabash, vocals
    Niwel Tsumbu, nylon string guitar
    Emer Mayock, Irish flute, uilleann pipes

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    Produced by Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi
    Recorded by Ben Rawlins at Hellfire Studios in Dublin, Oct 5—11, 2020
    Mixed by Ben Rawlins at the Jericho Mile
    Mastered by Kim Rosen at Knack Mastering, Ringwood, NJ

    Design by Jeri Heiden at SMOG Design, Inc.
    Album Cover and additional photos from the Opus Corvus series by Larry Blackwood
    Interior photos by Karen Cox