Rhiannon Giddens Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Paul Simon made a surprise appearance at Newport Folk Festival on Saturday (July 23), where he joined Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats at the end of a tribute set to his music.Simon previously announced his retirement from touring in 2018, playing his final ever concert in Queens, just minutes from where he grew up.The veteran singer-songwriter ended his ‘Homeward Bound’ farewell tour at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, playing a 26-strong set that ended with two separate encores.His unannounced appearance at Newport Folk Festival saw him being backed by Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, as well as Jerry Douglas on guitar. He kicked off his set with ‘Graceland’, followed by a special updated rendition of ‘American Tune’ featuring Rhiannon Giddens on vocals.Following this, he played ‘The Boxer’ joined by Douglas, Lucius, Rateliff and Lukas Nelson, closing out the evening with a performance of ‘The Sound of Silence’ by himself.Prior to Simon joining them on stage, Rateliff & The Night Sweats played a number of covers, including ‘Mother and Child Reunion’, ‘Homeward Bound’ and ‘Cecilia’.“What a joy working with Nathaniel and his incredible band.

Beyoncé is making history, landing at the top of the music charts after launching Cowboy Carter, her first country music album.

Thania Garcia Music Will (formerly Little Kids Rock), the largest non-profit music education program for schools in the United States, will hold its annual benefit on April 24 honoring Josh Groban, Andra Day and Rhiannon Giddens. Set to take place at the Novo in Los Angeles, the event will have music direction from Michael Bearden (Lady Gaga, Whitney Houston) and feature special guest performances to be announced, along with a silent online auction and remarks from key artistic and business supporters. The benefit will provide essential funding for Music Will’s ongoing mission to provide teacher training, a diverse curriculum, and free musical instruments to students—connecting them with the music that ignites their interest.

Beyoncé‘s entry album into the country music genre, Cowboy Carter, was released on March 29, and it’s already shattering records on streaming platforms.

Thania Garcia New details about Beyoncé’s incoming “Cowboy Carter,” out tonight (March 29), have emerged following yesterday’s tracklist reveal. The follow-up to Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” features Post Malone on the song “Levii’s Jeans,” while Miley Cyrus lends her vocals for “II Most Wanted.” In addition, Dolly Parton appears in an interlude, as does Willie Nelson and Linda Martell, the first black female solo artist to play the Grand Ole Opry.

Maren Morris marveling at Beyoncé.

Steven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer Nonesuch Records is celebrating its 60th birthday in a big way.

Bob Dylan made a surprise appearance at Farm Aid last night (September 23), marking the first time he’d appeared at the charity concert since he helped to conceive it.The annual event was founded by Willie Nelson and has taken place since 1985 and raises money to support family farmers in the US. The idea came about when, during his performance at Live Aid to raise money to help support farmers during the Ethiopian famine, Dylan wondered whether a similar event could be worked on to support American farmers.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic In the year 2023, Allison Russell has come as close as anyone is to being the face of Americana music, even though there are any rock-solid artists who’ve been in the limelight longer than she has — like Jason Isbell, Lucinda Williams and her friend and mentor Brandi Carlile — who certainly count as poster boys and girls. She might even be the front-runner for the artist of the year prize at the upcoming Americana Honors & Awards show, which takes place in Nashville Sept. 20, notwithstanding that Billy Strings has been nominated again to defend his title.

Bob Dylan supposedly once gave Post Malone his unused lyrics to use in a song that never got completed according to producer Michael Cash.Speaking to Rolling Stone, Cash revealed that he had come up with the idea for a project during the COVID-19 pandemic that would have seen rappers form songs based on recently uncovered and unused lyrics from Bob Dylan.Cash said the project would have been his own spin of the 2014 Bob Dylan-tribute record ‘Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes’, in which artists like Elvis Costello, Marcus Mumford, and Rhiannon Giddens recorded songs featuring unused Dylan lyrics.Cash’s version of the project, which would have been called ‘The Attic MP3s’, ultimately never came to fruition, but would ideally have featured performances from Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole and Post Malone.While the project never got released, Cash told Rolling Stone that some progress had been made as Dylan’s team green-lit Malone’s involvement in the record and that they had sent him lyrics to work with.Cash claims he corresponded with Jeff Rosen, Dylan’s longtime representative, and that after weeks of not hearing back, he got a text at “two o’clock in the morning”.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic It’s been a few years since Rhiannon Giddens did anything remotely in the ballpark of a “pop” album, and it’s not hard to come up with reasons for that: Besides her having a full dance card, you could almost argue she’s overqualified for the job. The recipient of both a MacArthur “genius grant” and a Pulitzer, the banjo-wielding balladeer has sustained herself for a while at the intersection of earthy and highbrow, most recently winning acclaim for her opera, “Omar,” and she looks at least at much at home fronting the LA Phil as she used to leading the old-fashioned string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Rhiannon Giddens has recorded her first solo album in six years, and her first album of all-original material ever, “You’re the One,” the singer announced Tuesday. The album will arrive August 17 on Nonesuch. The album announcement comes a day after Giddens was announced as being a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for music, for her opera, “Omar,” an honor she shares with co-composer Michael Abels. A tour is being simultaneously announced, as well, with most of the dates taking place this fall, including a September headlining stop at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Some of the highest-profile dates stretch into 2024, including shows next March and April at the Beacon in New York and the Theatre at Ace Hotel in L.A. (See the full itinerary below.)

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic There could probably be no better evangelist for anything than the immensely respected Rhiannon Giddens, and the banjo is lucky to have her. The singer and multi-instrumentalist has been spreading the gospel of that instrument generally and its roots in Black culture specifically for years, in her live performances and as a member of a banjo-driven all-star ensemble, Our Native Daughters. Now, she’s taking a much deeper dive than ever with an outstanding 10-part limited series, “The Banjo: Music, History and Heritage With Rhiannon Giddens,” which has her and some guests who are pickers and/or academics exploring the twisted, fascinating journey of what she considers the quintessential American instrument. The series covers everything from the instrument’s roots in the African diaspora to its role in slavery to its adaptation as a staple of “hillbilly” music, on up to its resurgence as a staple of the Americana music scene today — and how, in Giddens’ view, it has been a reflection of divisiveness and unification in the U.S. over a period of centuries.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Diane Warren and Son Lux were among the winners Wednesday evening at the 4th annual Society of Composers & Lyricists Awards. The awards recognize original score and songs in visual media across seven categories. Darren Criss, hosted the banquet at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles. Damien Chazelle and his go-to composer Justin Hurwitz received the Spirit of Collaboration Award. The duo has collaborated on five films including “Babylon,” “La La Land,” “Whiplash,” “First Man” and “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench.” The presentation of the award was accompanied by a musical performance including “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” from “La La Land,” the “First Man” theme for harp and theremin, and a “Babylon” medley which included “Voodoo Mama” and “Herman’s Hustle.”

The Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL) presented the winners of the 4th Annual SCL Awards for score and songs in visual media tonight at the Skirball Cultural Center.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticStagecoach has revealed the full lineup and schedule for the livestream that will go out this weekend on the country music festival’s YouTube channel, and it includes a number of artists that weren’t previously announced for the stream, offering couch sitters a nearly comprehensive view of what will be going down live in the California desert.The lineup includes the headliners — Thomas Rhett on Friday, Carrie Underwood on Saturday and Luke Combs on Sunday — as well as other marquee names that were named as part of the lineup earlier this week, like Maren Morris, Brothers Osborne, Margo Price, Cody Johnson, Yola, Lainey Wilson and the Black Crowes.It also now is revealed to have a substantial number of artists that weren’t previously included in the livestream announcement, including Tanya Tucker, Smokey Robinson, Jordan Davis, Lee Brice, Ingrid Andress, the Marcus King Band, Ryan Hurd, Charley Crockett, the Mavericks and Mitchell Tenpenny. Most of the lineup is now included, in fact, save for some of the artists who are appearing in the early part of the afternoon, including Americana artists such as Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Molly Tuttle and Waylon Payne.Brandi Carlile is off the bill, having disclosed in a social media video late Wednesday night that she has contracted COVID and won’t be making it.

Chris Willman Music WriterWhat were the odds that the Recording Academy would honor the woman that many consider the greatest living female songwriter, Joni Mitchell, and great living male songwriter, Paul Simon, within a week’s time of one another? And yet that’s what happened as last Friday’s pre-Grammys MusiCares tribute to Mitchell in Las Vegas was followed Wednesday in Los Angeles with “Homeward Bound: A Grammy Salute to the Songs of Paul Simon,” both with spectacularly curated lineups worthy of the feted. And although the Mitchell night is not set to be publicly aired, the good news for fans is that the Simon salute was filmed for a future CBS broadcast and is destined to be one of the highlights of the music-TV year.

Chris Willman Music WriterNominations have been announced for the Folk Alliance International’s Best of 2021 Awards, with such recent Grammy nominees (and winners) as Allison Russell, Rhiannon Giddens, Arooj Aftab, Valerie June, Kalani Pe’a and Sarah Jarosz among the contenders in the association’s three categories.Also set for non-competitive lifetime honors at the May awards ceremony are accordionist Flaco Jiménez, Jason Mraz, Denver-based folk music center Swallow Hill Music and the late singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith.Awards will be handed out May 18 in Kansas City on the opening night of the annual FAI conference, in a ceremony that will be webcast online.Russell is the only artist with a nomination in two of the three categories, being up for album of the year for her Grammy-nommed “Outside Child” as well as for artist of the year. Nominations are based on domestic and international year-end lists and folk DJ airplay.

The 64th Annual Grammy Awards are here. The award show aired live from the MGM Grand Arena is Las Vegas.  Holding the highest number of nominations is Jon Batiste, with Justin Bieber and Doja Cat following.  Justin Bieber and Hailey Bieber arrive at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.

Chris Willman Music WriterWhen the Nashville chapter of the Recording Academy held its annual pre-Grammys celebration for Tennessee-based nominees in early March, one of those contenders, Yola, filed a report from the party on Instagram. “The vibes were strong,” she wrote, “and so was the melanin!”Looking at the nominations in the country, folk and American roots categories, it was clear what the people of color in the chapter had to celebrate — and the Black women most of all.

Chris Willman Music WriterAs the Grammys return as a big-scale live event this year, so is the tradition of filming a tribute to a superstar musician in the days following the awards show, with the 2022 honoree being Paul Simon, who’ll be saluted by an all-star cast at L.A.’s Pantages Theatre.“Homeward Bound: A Grammy Salute to the Songs of Paul Simon” will be filmed April 6, three days after the Grammys, with a CBS air date to be determined for later in the year. Ken Ehrlich is reprising the role he’s had in the past as the annual salute’s executive producer.Among the performers booked for the tribute are Brandi Carlile, Dave Matthews, Rhiannon Giddens, Brad Paisley, Angélique Kidjo, Little Big Town, Billy Porter, Trombone Shorty, Shaggy, Take 6 and Irma Thomas.

NEW YORK -- Linda Martell, one of the pioneers for Black acts in country music and the first Black woman to perform solo at the Grand Ole Opry, will be honored at the 2021 CMT Music Awards.The 86-year-old will receive the CMT Equal Play Award at Wednesday night's show.

Chris Willman Music WriterTo be young, gifted and banjo-playing … and, yes, Black: these were the requirements for inclusion in the group Our Native Daughters, which was assembled by Rhiannon Giddens to make an album for the Smithsonian Folkways label that started as a one-off collective project and turned into a real band.

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

Amanda Palmer was doing the dishes while listening to Portishead (as you do) when the track ‘It’s A Fire’, from their seminal 1994 album ‘Dummy’, came on and she started “losing her shit” – taken off guard by how prescient and profound the song had become.“I heard the lyric ‘because this life is a farce / I can’t breathe in this mask… so breathe on, sister…‘ and I just just stopped,” Palmer tells NME.

The Boston-based organization is known not just for its touring ensemble comprised of world-class musicians from all over the globe, but also for its efforts to use the arts to bridge differences across races, countries and cultures.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSinger-songwriter Rhiannon Giddens, accompanied virtually by virtuoso cellist Yo-Yo Ma, has released a new song called “Build a House” in honor of Juneteenth.“This song, ‘Build a House,’ came knocking a week ago and I had to let it in,” Giddens wrote in a Twitter message accompanying the nearly five-minute-long song, which features split video of her performing it with Ma.

Americanafest, the annual Nashville conclave put on by the Americana Music Association, will morph into Thriving Roots: A Virtual Community Music Conference this year.Thriving Roots will take place Sept.