Smithsonian Folkways RecordingsClient Information
14 November, 2019Print
Forgotten Slave Narratives from ‘Our Native Daughters’ gets First Vinyl Release 11/15
Pre-order the vinyl HERE
Tomorrow, 'Songs of Our Native Daughters,’ the acclaimed debut album by Our Native Daughters, the quartet of African American banjoists Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell, comes to vinyl for the first time. It will be available in a standard black-vinyl edition, and limited-edition version on brown vinyl.
A bold retelling of the sanitized history of slavery and black life in the US, the album is a vibrant protest against misogynoir, spotlighting the untold stories of figures ranging from Quasheba, Russell’s ancestor who made the transatlantic journey from Ghana and was sold into a sugar cane plantation in Grenada, to Polly Ann, the wife of black folk hero John Henry, who barely gets a mention in the classic folk song. The quartet was recently nominated for Duo/Group of the Year at the Americana Music Awards, and have been praised by NPR, Rolling Stone, the New York Times, and more.
Watch Our Native Daughters perform "Black Myself" at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture HERE
The vinyl edition is available for pre-order HERE
Praise for Our Native Daughters
"An artistic mission to supplant the portrayals of slavery as an abstract, ancient sin with the imaginative, immersive contemplation of its individual human impact and aftermath" - NPR
"Their music is an act of reclamation... [offering] a glimpse of the strength and solidarity necessary in dark times" - TIME
"Devastating beauty from banjo supergroup... what Giddens and her cohorts have managed to create is a record of great importance and exceptional beauty, its darker moments countered by points of bright wonder" - The Guardian (5 star review)
“A crucial pronouncement in folk music” – Rolling Stone
"It's exciting to find a project like this that puts a spotlight on the often overlooked history of Black women in America" - Refinery29