Rhiannon Giddens + Francesco Turrisi Release New Album They’re Calling Me Home, Out Now On Nonesuch Records

Watch The Music Video For “Avalon”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esILLxHM92M

"A Near Perfect Album...Her Finest Work To Date"

- No Depression

(April 9, 2021) Today, GRAMMY and multi-award winning musician Rhiannon Giddens and Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi share their new album They’re Calling Me Home, out on Nonesuch Records. Recorded over six days at Hellfire, a small studio outside of Dublin, Ireland – where both of them currently live and have been since the beginning of the COVID-quarantine – the two manage to effortlessly blend the music of their native and adoptive countries: America, Italy, and Ireland. They’re Calling Me Home 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 has received raves and spotlights from NPR, a discussion earlier this week on NPR Music’s All Songs Considered, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and beyond. Broadcast yesterday on NPR’s Here & Now, Giddens discusses "connecting to the ancestors, connecting to the generation before" and how these old songs grapple with the subject matter of today in a perfect way. "Every culture has these songs that are laments," Giddens says. "It releases some of those feelings that you have and you experience them through the song and at the end, you're a little bit lighter.”

Later this afternoon she will also be a featured guest at the On Air Festival, in conversation with Hanif Abdurraqib for a live version of the Object of Sound podcast that he hosts (3-4PM ET: https://onairfest.app.swapcard.com/event/on-air-fest)

Giddens also shared a new music video today, for “Avalon,” an original song that explores the album’s themes of longing for home and death. Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esILLxHM92M

Says Giddens on “Avalon”:

“I wrote Avalon quite a while ago, and when this album came together I knew it was time to let it out in the world...it represents the two sides of the contemplation of the final transition - the sadness of the ones left behind, and the joy at the thought of somehow meeting again...someday, somewhere.”

Listen/Buy They’re Calling Me Home here:

http://smarturl.it/theyrecallingmehome

Watch the video for lead single “Calling Me Home” here

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.

They’re Calling Me Home is the follow-up to Giddens’ 2019 album with Turrisi, there is no Other (Nonesuch), of which Pitchfork said, “There are few artists so fearless and so ravenous in their exploration." Giddens earned a GRAMMY 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.

Praise for They’re Calling Me Home

“Rhiannon Giddens’ newest album goes back in time to soothe the soul of listeners today”

- NPR Here & Now

"A near perfect album...her finest work to date"

- No Depression

"Masterfully mixes the music of Ireland, Italy, Appalachia and heaven"

- Associated Press

"A sublime follow-up to 2019's There Is No Other. Most striking of all is 'O Death,' in which Giddens' extraordinary voice hits new levels of resolute power"

- Uncut, 9 out of 10

“They’re Calling Me Home is very much its own project, exploring a specific facet within one’s understanding of personal identity”

- American Songwriter

“Rhiannon's voice is as soaring and show-stopping as ever”

- Brooklyn Vegan

“Giddens finds a note between despair and hope — a powerful resistance that speaks to the day when she can finally go home”

- Holler Country

"One of the most quietly beautiful and evocative records you’re likely to hear this year"

- Air Mail

They’re Calling Me Home Track List:

1. Calling Me Home

2. Avalon

3. Si Dolce È’l Tormento

4. I Shall Not Be Moved

5. Black as Crow

6. O Death

7. Niwel Goes to Town

8. When I Was In My Prime

9. Waterbound

10. Bully For You

11. Nenna Nenna

12. Amazing Grace

Connect with Rhiannon Giddens

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