Tomorrow is My Turn is Rhiannon Giddens debut solo album. I first got to know Giddens for he work with the traditional/bluegrass/Negro Jig band The Carolina Chocolate Drops. I have two of their albums that I really enjoy.Rhiannon Giddens is an excellent musician and singer so when I heard last year that she was going to release a solo album and I was keen to hear her in a different environment.
I have been listening to this for about two weeks now and apart from a few tracks it is sadly not connecting too well with me. It is impeccably played and sung but to me lacks an emotional connection, either between Giddens and the songs or to me.
It seems more like a collection of songs chosen to demonstrate Giddens' abilities rather than a thematically consistent whole album. Stylistically it is all over the place. There is a lot of variety here, from traditional songs like Black is the Colour and Round About the Mountain, a few country songs (Dolly's Don't Let it Trouble Your Mind and the evergreen She's Got You). The centrepiece of the album is the title track Tomorrow is My Turn - a song previously "owned" by Nina Simone However she only really seems to connect with Waterboy and Up Above My Head songs that would have fitted well onto a Carolina Chocolate Drops album.
Looking forward to when she is back with the band.
OK, so on a slow Sunday morning I drop this onto the tray and listen, then check a couple of times to see if this is the same CD Mike is reviewing. Songs chosen to demonstrate Giddon's abilities....sure, self promoting......indeed. But I don't see the "stylistically all over the place". Mind you, I often do not play the tracks in the CD order, I mix this up each listen to give a fresh perspective. After a few days of listening to wall-of-sound-wannabes the sparse, clear qualities of this production were refreshing to me.
ReplyDeleteLike Mike, I look forward to her next outing with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, but in the interim I can listen to this CD imagining a monochrome, smoky speak-easy and a smooth neat whiskey.