Rhiannon Giddens On 'You're The One' (Listening Party)

Summary

Episode Summary: "Rhiannon Giddens On 'You're The One' (Listening Party)"

Podcast: All Of It
Host: Alison Stewart
Guest: Rhiannon Giddens
Release Date: June 24, 2025
Air Time: Weekdays, 12:00 - 2:00 PM on WNYC

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Introduction

Alison Stewart opens the episode by mentioning a recent live event featuring the cast and creative team behind Buena Vista Social Club, highlighting their achievement of winning five Tony Awards, including a special accolade for their performance. She then introduces the focus of the day’s show: musical conversations and live performances from artists like Uwade and Chloe the God, setting the stage for an in-depth discussion with Rhiannon Giddens about her new album.

Performance: "Too Little Too Late Too Bad" (00:53)

Rhiannon Giddens performs her song "Too Little Too Late Too Bad," the first track from her album you’re the One. The song showcases her prowess as a banjo virtuoso and singer-songwriter, blending elements of Americana, blues, and folk traditions.

Conversation with Rhiannon Giddens

Mission-Based Artistry (02:50) Giddens describes herself as a mission-based artist and cultural archivist. She emphasizes her commitment to shedding light on untold American histories and correcting harmful narratives that have persisted for centuries. This dedication stems from her discovery of the banjo’s African origins, which ignited her passion for uncovering and sharing historical truths through music.

Curiosity-Driven Projects (03:58) Alison asks whether Giddens seeks out her mission-driven projects or if they find her. Giddens explains that it's a combination of both, driven largely by her curiosity and extensive research. She shares an example of how she became involved in telling the story of Omar Ibn Said after discovering his history and recognizing its significance.

Evolution to Original Music (04:35) Giddens discusses her transition to creating an album of all original music with you’re the One. Previously, her work focused on archival material and reinterpretations of traditional songs. This album represents her desire to explore different aspects of her artistry and collaborate with producer Jack Splash to expand her sound.

Themes in Original Songs (06:19) When not focused on her mission-based work, Giddens gravitates towards themes of strong, resilient women. Her songs often depict women overcoming relationship challenges and finding strength, ensuring that each narrative ends on a hopeful note. She highlights her intention for women in her songs to walk away empowered rather than defeated.

Personal Inspirations (07:12) Giddens shares insights into the title track "you’re the One," revealing it as a deeply personal song inspired by the birth of her second child. She contrasts her experience of postpartum depression after her first child with the clarity and joy she felt upon her second child’s arrival, describing the song as a transition from darkness to a vibrant, loving reality.

Vocal Evolution and Collaboration with Jack Splash (09:31) Discussing her vocal journey, Giddens explains how transitioning from opera to a more pop-oriented style allowed her voice to develop and adapt. Collaborating with Jack Splash, known for his work with Kendrick Lamar and Alicia Keys, enabled her to blend acoustic elements with a broader sound palette. Their collaborative approach involved recording with a large group of musicians simultaneously, fostering an organic and cohesive sound.

Performance Insights (12:36) Alison comments on the dynamic nature of Giddens' song "you’re the One," noting its playful and flirty beginning that transitions into deeper themes of female empowerment and pleasure. Giddens explains that the song pays homage to 1920s double entendre styles, blending sass with meaningful messages.

Live Performances and Closing Remarks

Following the conversation, the episode features a live performance from Uwade, showcasing their debut album Florilegium. Alison Stewart wraps up by reminding listeners about Rhiannon Giddens' upcoming free concert in Central Park for Summer Stage, encouraging the audience to attend and support the vibrant cultural scene.

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Notable Quotes:

• Rhiannon Giddens (02:50): "I try to decenter myself in the work that I do and shine a light on stories that need to be told."
• Alison Stewart (06:02): "It's like being a librarian, making connections and putting things together."
• Rhiannon Giddens (06:19): "I never want the woman on the floor at the end of any of these songs."

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This episode of All Of It offers a rich exploration of Rhiannon Giddens' artistic journey, her dedication to cultural preservation, and her evolution into creating original music that empowers and inspires. Through engaging dialogue and live performances, listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of Giddens' contributions to contemporary culture and her ongoing mission to tell meaningful stories through her art.

Transcript

[Alison Stewart]

This is all of it. I'm Alison Stewart. Thanks for spending part of your day with us. Before the news, you heard us broadcasting a special live event from the green space with the cast and creative team behind Buena Vista Social Club, which won five Tonys this year, including a special one for the band you just heard. If you missed it or you want to listen to it again, subscribe to our podcast or visit wnyc.org and search all of it. Now we'll get into the rest of today's show with some more musical conversations. Later on this hour, we'll hear live performances from singer, songwriter Uwade and Chloe the God. But first, we'll start with Too Little Too Late Too Bad by Rhiannon Giddens.

[Rhiannon Giddens]

See you on your knees as I go walking by begging Darling baby, please don't leave me high and dry well I tell you right now my dear old used to be that ship it ain't just sail it's way on out to sea Getting smaller every minute Too little, too late, too bad I want the last chance of love you ever had Too many lies, too many alibis Too little too late, too bad.

[Alison Stewart]

That's Rhiannon Giddens, a banjo virtuoso, singer composer. The song was titled Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad and it's the first track off her album youm're the One. Giddens is a self described mission based artist and cultural archivist, meaning that the music she produces is largely based on archival materials and putting new spins on old songs from folk traditions from around the world, from Americana and the blues to Irish jigs. Rhiannon Giddens joined me for an all of it listening party around the release of her album youm're the One, which is her first record of all original music, and we wanted to share parts of that conversation with you again today because she'll be performing a free show in Central park for Summer Stage tomorrow evening. I started by asking Giddens what she means when she says that she considers herself a mission based artist.

[Rhiannon Giddens]

It means that I try to decenter myself in the work that I do and try to shine a light on stories that need to be told, trying to use my platform to clarify pieces of American history that I think are being twisted in ways that are very harmful and are very present, even though they start four or five hundred years ago. All of those things within a, you know, within an industry that's very much based on money making and all of that. So it's difficult at times. But I, you Know, I'm just doing the best they can.

[Alison Stewart]

Sometimes those misinterpretations are purposeful.

[Rhiannon Giddens]

Yes, absolutely.

[Alison Stewart]

So you need people out there correcting the record. However, whether that's through art or through journalism, it's really important.

[Rhiannon Giddens]

Yeah, it is. Because, like, you know, like for me, it started with the banjo. You know, learning that the banjo is an African derived instrument that was invented by black people in the Caribbean. And then so my first question, you know, my first realization, oh, my gosh, that's completely different to what I know. And then it's like, why don't I know that? And in whose best interest is it that I don't know that? So that's kind of driven me for the last 15 years.

[Alison Stewart]

Do these missions tend to find you or do you go in search of them?

[Rhiannon Giddens]

A little bit of everything. I kind of follow where curiosity leads me. I read a lot and I'll hit something in a book and then get another book and then kind of follow the trail, you know. And then sometimes I'm offered an opportunity. Like Omar was an opportunity offered to me. I didn't even know his story. And you know, the folks at Spoleto said, do you know Omar Ibn Said? And I was like, what? And I'm from North Carolina. And he lived, you know, all of his American life was in North Carolina. I was like, what? Or almost all of it. I was like, how do I not know this? And that just gets me all hyped up. And I'm like, yes, I'll do it. Write an opera. Yes. And then I'm like, oh, how do I do this?

[Alison Stewart]

Now I have to write an opera.

[Rhiannon Giddens]

Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

When you first began thinking about this project, was it always going to be an album, original songs, or did some of these songs exist and you just kind of been holding them for the right time?

[Rhiannon Giddens]

Yeah, all of them I've been holding for the right time. Because, like, as you mentioned, I do feel that mission. You know, a lot of my work is really in that realm. And it's been, you know, it's been a. I won't say it's a burden. It's something I gladly carry, but it's a weight. And I, you know, I have songs based on slave narratives and I'm, you know, describing really complex things in shows, in five minute bites, you know, talking about minstrelsy and all this kind of stuff. And I just kind of realized I was kind of getting burned out a little bit. And it felt like this was. It was just time to have a full band Record and it was time to, you know, explore other sides of my artistry. So I had these songs that had been waiting. They didn't fit on the other mission based records. They were just waiting. And I said, well, it's time. Let's expand the sound and let's partner with a producer who can bring me into world that I have listened to and loved but have not really made art in yet.

[Alison Stewart]

When you're writing your own songs, are you drawn to different material and different themes than the work of your mission based work, which, as you just described, is a little bit heavy in the best way.

[Rhiannon Giddens]

Yeah, totally.

[Alison Stewart]

In the best way. But no, when you were describing what you do, it made me think of being a librarian. Like somebody who has a degree in library sciences who, like, knows how to go find things and make connections and put them together. And that's tiring work.

[Rhiannon Giddens]

It is tiring work. I do kind of consider myself a cultural archaeologist or something. You know what I mean? It's just. It's a lot of digging and I love it. But yes, it does carry a lot of responsibility.

[Alison Stewart]

So what do you get to write about when you're not being in. When you don't have that hat on, when you have your. I'm just gonna write songs. What are some themes that are attractive to you?

[Rhiannon Giddens]

Well, I'm so into strong women, obviously. And you know, the kind of idea of, you know, you've been treated wrong or this relationship didn't work out or whatever, it needs to end with a woman. Kind of either a kiss off or I'm gonna. I'm just gonna, you know, get my own strength together. So there's quite a few like, well, it didn't work out with the man songs, but at the end of each one it's like, but I'm gonna move on and I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna go to the next thing and I'm gonna take my strength from what I've learned from this, you know, and so that is important to me. I never want the woman on the floor at the end of any of these songs, you know, they need to be walking away going, okay, this might not have been a great situation, but I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna get something better next time.

[Alison Stewart]

Get your Gloria Gaynor picture up there for inspiration.

[Rhiannon Giddens]

Exactly.

[Alison Stewart]

My guest is Rhiannon Giddens. We're talking about her new album youm're the One. Let's listen to a little bit of the title track youk're the One. Will you share a little background on this before we hear it.

[Rhiannon Giddens]

Yeah, this was. This one's kind of like a little different because it's one that really is a very personal song. A lot of the other ones kind of draw from emotional moments that I've had, but then I kind of spin them into sort of, you know, just fables or stories. But this one I wrote after the birth of my. And my first child. I'd had pretty heavy postpartum depression for the first year. And that kind of puts a veil between you and your emotions. And when I had my boy, my second child, for some reason I didn't have at that time, and I was like, oh, this is what it feels like to have a newborn and not have that curtain in front of you. And so I sat down and wrote the song. Kind of like, you know, going from the grays of that kind of fog and haze into a new Technicolor world. Like, that's how I felt. And I was like. And I. And of course, have all of that love for my first daughter. But it was just that. That initial kind of. That. That. The hormones, all of those things, I felt them for the first time and I was like, oh, that's what they're talking about, you know? So I wrote the song youg're the one.

[Alison Stewart]

Let's take a.

[Rhiannon Giddens]

I knew you were the one Were my one and only And I knew that you would always know me. Cause you were the one Kept me from feeling so sad and lonely in my life. And I never knew life could be so wonderful that there could be someone who was so beautiful And I never knew that I could be so free Love someone like you And I wanna love you forever And I'll be with you worse and far better. And I never thought I'd. You're the one that's.

[Alison Stewart]

You're the one. It's the name of Ran Giddins new album for people. I think most people who listen to WNYC know. But in case the few who don't. You were trained as an opera singer, what did you discover about your voice? Singing in a. More. A more pop style and some of the more pop styles. And also working with this producer, Jack Splash, who's worked with Kendrick and Alicia Keys.

[Rhiannon Giddens]

Well, I mean, nothing new really, because, like, a lot of these. I wrote these songs over the last 14 years, so they've been kind of in my voice, you know, like that you're the one. You know, my son is 10 years old now, you know, so it's like These are all explorations, and I've always been exploring, you know, ever since I kind of left the operatic stage. And, you know, my first, you know, the first band I was in was a Celtic band in North Carolina. They had to suffer through me learning how to use a mic and, you know, trying to take out some of that voice that I've been putting in for the last, you know, five years. So it's. It's. It's. It was a chance to put all of that together and also to match that with a bigger sound palette. And that's what I hadn't really done. I've kind of been. It's kind of a companion record to my first solo record, Tomorrow's My Turn, which was all covers, but it was all people I was inspired by. A lot of those are the same folks that I'm inspired by. But now in the course of this career, I've learned how to write and I've become a songwriter. And so it kind of come. It's not like a circle circle, more like a spiral kind of come around. And so my voice has definitely developed more since then and I've learned more. But I've always been interested in having all of these styles live together because they come out of the same. The common American sort of cultural. Well, that, you know, all of the genres come out of. So I'm. That's. That's. That's always been my thing, for sure.

[Alison Stewart]

How did working with Jack Splash, first of all, why did you want to work with him?

[Rhiannon Giddens]

Well, because he had, you know, access to. To these different sounds, an expansion of that sound palette. And also he was somebody who was interested in meeting me halfway, you know, that he was. He was intrigued by the sort of acoustic instruments that I was bringing and the musicians that I was bringing. And he loved the demos, and he really wanted to come from where I was coming from. And. And so it was important that it wasn't all. Either all the way over to my side or over to his side. It was like we found this organic sort of middle place, which was what I wanted. And we did that by talking about it ahead of time, but also bringing. I brought a group of musicians. He had a group of musicians, and then they all played together, which is, you know, not always done now because it's not the cheapest thing in the world to do. But I knew I was really committed to that. I was like, let's have, you know, if we need to shorten the time, that's fine, but let's have everybody Together, because that's where we're gonna find an organic, you know, meld of our two approaches, rather than having to do it in the. In the booth. Having to do it, you know, with the knobs and the faders and the laying on tracks and things. So at one point, like, the first thing that we recorded was you, L.A. man. And that was like 13 people on the floor, you know, like, all at the same time. And that's when we realized after we recorded that we were like, oh, this is a sound. This is a thing. And we could have only done that live.

[Alison Stewart]

I do want to go to the other end of the spectrum because this song has made me laugh and smile and you know what I'm talking about. You put the sugar in my bowl. It starts, like, super bouncy and sassy, and it's very flirty. And then you kind of get down to business about women seeking pleasure.

[Rhiannon Giddens]

Yeah. I mean, it's homage to all those double entendre songs from the twenties where they were just, like, saying it and saying it.

[Alison Stewart]

Let's listen.

[Rhiannon Giddens]

Well, they try and they fail no matter what the style there's only one or runner goes that extra mile. Nobody fits me like you do not one man measures up. Now there's them that say a woman doesn't know her own mind.

She must be meek and bidable, graceful and kind.

She mustn't ask for what she wants the whole night long.

Where there's them that like to say that and then that are wrong.

You put the pepper in my dish and the schwa in my de vivre. You're the key to every wish and the cure to my fever.

[Alison Stewart]

Joie de vivre. Hilarious. That song just, like, comes with a feather boa.

[Rhiannon Giddens]

Next time, whenever we reissue, we will put a feather boa in there.

[Alison Stewart]

Is that a character you're playing or is that a part of you?

[Rhiannon Giddens]

I mean, it doesn't matter. You know what I mean? I get to this place where it's all the same, and it's just when I'm singing that song, I am that person, you know? And it is a part of me because I couldn't have written it otherwise, you know?

[Alison Stewart]

That was my conversation with Rhiannon Giddens about her album youm're the One she'll be playing tomorrow evening at a free concert in Central park for Summer Stage. Coming up, here's some music performed live from singer songwriter Uwade, whose debut album is called Florilegium. Stick Around. This is all of it for 140 years MultiCare has been in Washington prioritizing long term solutions, partnering with local communities and expanding access to care. Together, we're building a healthier future.

[Uwade]

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