They're calling me home

"They're Calling Me Home belongs to a class of albums inspired by the global COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi found themselves locked down in their newly adopted home of Ireland, far away from their respective birthplaces in America and Italy ... The pair find comfort within each other, yet they cannot shake the yearning for other people and places, a complex set of emotions that were quite universal during 2020 and 2021 and are richly conveyed on this soulful, searching album".

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"This is a big, beautiful album, a showcase for direct, punchy emotions and Giddens' vocal versatility. She trained as an opera singer and executes astonishing levels of beauty and control on Monteverdi's Si Dolce è'l Tormento and When I Was in My Prime, a folk song previously covered by Pentangle and Nina Simone. Old-time staple Black As Crow is different and delicate, its banjo-plucked tenderness further softened by Emer Mayock's Irish flute. Then O Death lands with a whack, as heavy, funky gospel blues: Turrisi does propulsive work on the frame drum. Giddens goes the full Merry Clayton ... This album is full of dazzling examples in this vein. They'll live on".

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"44-årige Rhiannon Giddens' operatrænede stemme har en utrolig spændvidde, og sammen med sin nye partner, den italiensk-irske multiinstrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, fortolker hun blandt andet 'I Shall Not Be Moved', en salme fra 1908, som alle de store (...) har sunget. Ny luft pustes også i 'Amazing Grace', sidste nummer på albummet 'They're Calling Me Home', som rangerer blandt forårets bedste bud på spirituel musik ... Giddens' banjo - hun spiller drøngodt - er en kopi af et instrument fra 1850'erne, fortalte den historiebevidste kunstner under en koncert i Aarhus i 2015 ... I hendes rootsmusik smeltes forskellige tider og traditioner sammen. Sådan går det, når man har et hjem i både amerikanske North Carolina og irske Limerick".

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