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Music / folk

Songs of Our Native Daughters

Our Native Daughters

Reviews (5)

The guardian

d. 21. Feb. 2019

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Laura Barton

d. 21. Feb. 2019

"Four black female banjo players wrestling with gender, race, slavery, sexual assault and the domination of the male gaze might make an admirable-if-arduous prospect, but this new collaboration proves by turns a proud, devastating, authoritative album made for our bewildering times ... Frequently there is something deeply rousing in hearing these four female voices butt up against one another, weave around, stand aside, make space. Likewise their banjo-playing styles, which run from the five-string and tenor to the early fretless minstrel incarnation chosen by Giddens, serve as a reminder of the variation and nuance of an instrument somewhat besmirched by the new-folk scene ... A record of great importance and exceptional beauty, its darker moments countered by points of bright wonder".

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Information

d. 29. Mar. 2019

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By

Louise Rosengreen

d. 29. Mar. 2019

"Der er fuld power på de fire sangerinder og deres femstrengede banjoer i folkemusikprojektet Our Native Daughters, der i 13 sange aktualiserer slaveriets gru ... Intet virker vilkårligt på Rhiannon Giddens og hendes tre medsøstres fælles folkprojekt, der via country, bluegrass og gospel fortolker både deres egne og deres formødres lidelser ... Sangene er til trods for deres indlejrede smerte et af de smukkeste eksempler på historiebrug, mine ører er stødt på. Og da slaveri stadig findes, er Songs of Our Native Daughters ud over at være vidunderlig fribåren musik også et vigtigt, aktuelt musikalsk bidrag til menneskehedens fortsatte emancipationskamp".

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Songlines

2019 May

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Nigel Williamson

2019 May

"Top of the world" - "A super-group of inspiring black female roots performers ... The brainchild of [Rhiannon] Giddens, the project expands on the themes of black history explored on her brilliant 2017 album Freedom Highway. Drawing on slave narratives, early minstrelsy and the quartet's own ancestral history, the 13 songs portray the struggle, resistance and resilience of black women down the centuries ... Harrowing, empowering, heart-breaking and redemptive by turn, it's a staggering achievement and a Grammy Award surely awaits".

fRoots

2019 Spring

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Chris Nickson

2019 Spring

"There's so much strength packed into this disc, it should come with a warning. The band (...) have produced an album that gives powerful voice to American women of colour ... Right out of the blocks there's no stopping these women, with [Amythyst] Kiah's "Black Myself" a strutting, swaggering blues, followed by the appealingly off-kilter rhythm and glorious harmonies of "Moon Meets The Sun", with [producer Dirk] Powell's subtle guitar taking the song to West Africa ... It continues from strength to strength with all four women contributing songs, voices and instruments in different combinations, and the constant throughout of the banjo, an instrument that originated in Africa and was brought over with the slaves only to find itself quite suddenly an American instrument. So this is about claiming birthrights in American music ... An album like this is what modern America needs. Emotional and harrowing, this is the real narrative".

Living blues

2019 April

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Melanie Young

2019 April

"Drawing on historical texts and melodies, the Daughters brilliantly connect the stories of black women across time to the present moment ... Banjoists and roots musicians all, they bring a variety of musical forms to the table, from a reimagined minstrel banjo tune on Giddens' Better Git Yer Learnin' to Haitian folk on McCalla's enchantingly lovely Lavi Difisil ... These songs are equal parts beautiful, harrowing and necessary".