American Railroad, from the Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens, is the culmination of four years of research, collaboration, and music-making, having brought Silkroad artists all across the US to uncover and uplift stories of those who built the transcontinental railroad and connecting railways across North America. "The result is a tapestry of stories, traditions, and music that have shaped our multifaceted cultural identity, and that must be heard and recognized," Giddens says.
Silkroad and its Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens will release the album American Railroad on November 15 via Nonesuch Records. They will also release the American Railroad podcast series, in partnership with PRX, the first episode of which will drop on November 14. Both releases are part of Silkroad's multi-year American Railroad initiative. The first track from the album, Rhiannon Giddens’s arrangement of the traditional songs “Swannanoa Tunnel / Steel-Driving Man,” is available now. The accompanying performance video can be seen here:
The American Railroad album reflects the program for Silkroad’s inaugural American Railroad tour in Fall 2023. Its thirteen tracks include commissioned pieces by Cécile McLorin Salvant, Suzanne Kite, and Silkroad artist Wu Man, as well as new arrangements of songs by Rhiannon Giddens and fellow Silkroad artists Haruka Fujii, Maeve Gilchrist, and Mazz Swift. Rounding out the album are original compositions and arrangements by Silkroad artists Pura Fé, Sandeep Das, Niwel Tsumbu, and Kaoru Watanabe. American Railroad was recorded live during tour stops at the Green Music Center in Sonoma, CA and Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, CA; it is co-produced by Giddens, Watanabe, and Jody Elff.
The first single from the album, Rhiannon Giddens’s arrangement of the traditional songs “Swannanoa Tunnel / Steel-Driving Man,” is available today. “Swannanoa Tunnel” is a song written by wrongfully imprisoned Black men and women, who unwillingly risked their lives building the Swannanoa Tunnel in Giddens’s home state of North Carolina. It serves as a tribute to them, ending with a version of the popular traditional tune “Steel-Driving Man” about the folk hero John Henry, who beat the steam drill with his hammer, only to die of a burst heart.
Salvant’s first-ever Silkroad commission, “Have You Seen My Man?,” tells the imagined story of a woman walking slowly along a train track, joined by generations of wanderers who cannot ride the train though it was built by their labors. For Kite’s work, titled “Wíhaŋblapi Mázačhaŋku,” she created a graphic score using the Lakota written language based on dreams from members of the Silkroad Ensemble. Wu Man’s “Rainy Day” combines her instrument, the pipa, with the banjo and voice to reflect the emotions of Chinese wives and mothers who miss their husbands and sons working on the railroad across the Pacific Ocean. Fujii’s “Tamping Song” celebrates the Japanese immigrant contribution to the railroad, particularly after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882; while Gilchrist’s “Far Down Far” shines light on the tensions between Catholic and Protestant communities within Irish railroad workers. Swift’s take on the spiritual, “O Shout!,” reminds us of the way in which enslaved people in the U.S. were able to communicate complex messages of hope, devotion, freedom, and insurrection—through music.
To shed even more light on the untold stories of the Transcontinental Railroad, Silkroad is partnering with Peabody Award-winning public media organization PRX for a five-episode podcast series hosted by Rhiannon Giddens. Episodes will be released beginning November14, free on-demand across all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Pocket Casts, Overcast, and NPR One.
The American Railroad podcast will weave together music and story, centering different regions of the country while delving into ties to the railroad and how they resonate today. Guests will include historians, musicians, descendants of railroad workers, members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, and Silkroad artists. From Chinese laborers’ crucial role in California’s railroad to the tragic tale of convict laborers in North Carolina, the series will help paint a more accurate and inclusive picture of America’s railroad history.
