Posted inListening

Our Native Daughters Reunite in Triumph at Carnegie Hall

November 10, 2022

Rhiannon Giddens, Allison Russell, Amythyst Kiah and Leyla McCalla expand on their groundbreaking album, Songs of Our Native Daughters , in exhilarating Carnegie Hall concert

Inspired by her visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, Rhiannon Giddens assembled three other banjo-playing Black women – Allison Russell, Leyla McCalla and Amythyst Kiah – in January 2018 to record an album of songs exploring slavery and the history of the banjo. As the women arrived at the isolated home studio of producer Dirk Powell in rural Louisiana, the emphasis of the two-week project expanded to incorporate songs on specific experiences of Black women. Many of the songs were written on the spot in a burst of inspiration and collaboration, partly captured by a Smithsonian film crew documenting the project (the full documentary, Reclaiming History: Our Native Daughters is now available on-demand on Paramount Plus and the Smithsonian Channel; a good hour-long CMT/Smithsonian interview about the documentary (including excerpts) from February 2021 with Rhiannon, Allison and Amythyst, is on Facebook here…the actual program starts about two minutes in). 

The resulting album, Songs of Our Native Daughters, was released February 2019 to very positive reviews. The group toured an exclusive set of venues in the summer of 2019, including stops at Tanglewood, Chautauqua NY, the Cambridge (UK) Folk Festival and the Newport Folk Festival. The album earned Grammy and Americana Award nominations and helped boost the careers not only of the four band members but a growing community of other Black and female artists in the Country and Americana genres. The album resonated even stronger through the Black Lives Matter summer of 2020. There had been talk of some kind of reunion or second project but the combination of Covid and a flowering of opportunities and successful new albums for each of the artists has made it difficult to coordinate.

This November 4, 2022 concert at Carnegie Hall was effectively the first time the women have played together in person since the 2019 Newport Festival. I’ve been very fortunate to see Allison Russell, Amythyst Kiah and Rhiannon Giddens (with the Silk Road Ensemble) perform as solo artists in the past year, but when this concert was announced I decided I couldn’t miss it. Besides, it was my first and maybe only chance to see a show in Carnegie Hall.

I bought my ticket the day they went on sale and was able to get a spot in the first row in the center of Tier One in what turned out to be a box seat – basically equivalent to where the President and Honorees sit at the Kennedy Center Awards in DC. I was delighted with the position when I finally arrived and took my seat. Carnegie Hall looked spare and beautiful, the stage set already set with instruments and microphones for what would evidently be seven musicians. I had wondered whether any of the women would bring members of their touring bands or indeed whether the set would feature many of their solo efforts, but it seemed the focus would be on the original collaborations for the Songs of Our Native Daughters album. 

View from my seat, pre-show

As the sold out crowd filtered into their seats I wasn’t surprised to see that it was very much an older, white audience – the NPR crowd, I call us. What else was to be expected at Carnegie Hall? There was some diversity of age and color, but not enough. There were some masks in recognition of Covid, including on me and my box mates, thankfully, but not enough.

The program booklet (which sadly I seem to have lost already) let us know the show would be in two parts with an intermission, but that’s about all it said other than biographies of the players. The four women took the stage accompanied by Rhiannon’s multi-instrumentalist husband, Francesco Turrisi, along with bassist Jason Sypher and drummer Jamie Dick who both played on the original record and have long accompanied Rhiannon.

There were no video cameras in Carnegie Hall and no indication that the show was recorded for posterity though I hope it was. There were not even the usual professional still photographers roaming the front of the stage. Anytime an audience member started to record a particular song with the cellphone, an usher would swoop by to stop them. The online music magazine Brooklyn Vegan review of the concert includes a number of photos from “Ellen Qbertplaya.” I’ve “borrowed” a couple to include here, with attribution if not permission, because I can hardly find any others.

Our Native Daughters
L-R: Amythyst, Allison, Jason, Rhiannon, Leyla, Jamie

I kept notes during the performance; below are each song of the setlist with my comments. I’ve assembled an accompanying YouTube playlist of each of the songs, mostly using live performances from other dates and sometimes different bands or solo performances. 

  • Moon Meets the Sun – the group opened with a slow, stately version of this second track from the album (lyrics) which offers a verse to showcase each of the ladies and choruses in unison. It was a lovely start to the show and a musical introduction to each singer. Oddly, I haven’t found a live performance of the song on YouTube so I used the album track for the playlist.
  • Quasheba, Quasheba – Allison Russell introduced this powerful song, track four from the album (lyrics), about her family’s forbearer, noting the honor and history of playing in Carnegie Hall saying “our ancestors are gathered.” It quickly became evident that, while Rhiannon is the founder and leader of the band, Allison has a lively and assured stage presence that commands your attention. The YouTube performance is from a June 2022 KEXP (Seattle) radio performance featuring three of her regular band members and bassist Ganessa James whom I didn’t know but will evidently be playing with Allison through the end of the year. The clip starts with a minute or so of Hy-Brasil which they didn’t do at the Carnegie Hall show.
  • Lavi Dificil – Leyla McCalla introduced her partly Haitian creole song about a hard life, track 10 from the album (lyrics). She joked about being the first one to stall while she tuned her banjo. Leyla’s voice is a nice echo and complement to Rhiannon’s, whereas Allison and Amythyst offer effective contrasting flavors. 
  • Blood and Bones – Amythyst Kiah introduced the next song, track 11 from the album (lyrics), with a story of how it came together early in the Louisiana session. Amythyst arrived with the basic chorus but Allison was able to add verses overnight and they recorded it the next day. Both Allison and Amythyst alluded to arriving in Louisiana experiencing writer’s block (in Allison’s case, for several years) but the dam broke as soon as the four women got together. 
  • Mama’s Crying Long – Rhiannon abruptly started the off-beat clapping rhythm that marks this wrenching acapella song about murder and lynching told from a child’s perspective. Track seven from the album (lyrics), this is one of the group’s most arresting and powerful songs, made even more so by Rhiannon’s passionate singing and the other three’s stock-still deadpan echo. Seeing her maintain the clapping rhythm on her own, with some discreet tom-tom beats from Jamie Dick that perfectly mirrored Rhiannon’s barefoot stomps, and nearly breaking down toward the end, it was a memorable performance that brought a rousing ovation. The YouTube playlist has a partial performance from Newport that captures the spirit along with a background segment from the documentary.
  • Polly Ann’s Hammer – Letting the catharsis subside, Amythyst took her time introducing this song, track six from the album (lyrics), which she and Allison also wrote together in Louisiana, revising Sid Hemphill’s version of the traditional ballad, John Henry. As Amythyst tuned her banjo yet again, Rhiannon joked “There are probably some ghosts in this Hall that are cringing right now,” alluding to the presence of banjos – and perhaps the presence of four Black women as well – in this hallowed space. The band launched into the song, propelled by Rhiannon’s fiddle with both Allison and Amythyst on banjo, and Amythyst’s powerful lead vocal. The YouTube version from Newport is a good representation, but Rhiannon added a coda: as the song concluded, she ripped into a solo fiddle reel that may have been straight from her original mentor, Joe Thompson. The loud, vigorous breakdown only lasted 90 seconds or so but it was fabulous, bringing some of the audience to their feet in a roar of applause.
  • Jogue Au Plombeau – As the crowd settled back down, Allison started to introduce the next song, clearly building into the story of writing “You’re Not Alone,” but was hurriedly interrupted by Rhiannon’s nudging that it wasn’t her turn. Abashed, Allison conceded she read the set list incorrectly and turned things over to Leyla to introduce this Creole drinking song, “Jug of Moonshine,” the first song in the set not from the album. Leyla played the cello and sang this one solo, very similar to her 2016 performance on the YouTube playlist. I didn’t know the history or what the lyrics meant to this song (others wonder too), but subsequently learned it’s a traditional Cajun/Creole fiddle tune recorded in the 1960s (I think, and written?) by Canray Fontenot and later by others. Leyla’s slinky version was a nice interlude in the show.
  • You’re Not Alone – Rhiannon teased that they had one more song to play in this abbreviated concert, then admitted that it was just until intermission. She also made a plug to buy some merch during intermission even though she wasn’t sure there was any in the Hall (someone shouted that there were items in the gift shops). Allison then re-launched into her story of writing this song (track 13 on the album, lyrics) on the first night of the recording session, the first time she had been away from her daughter Ida. This was the song that broke the dam of her multi-year writer’s block, letting her contribute mightily to this album and her subsequent award winning solo album, Outside Child. Allison alluded to the success of that album and her recent re-recording of this song with Brandi Carlile, noting that proceeds from that release go to a foundation for reproductive rights. Allison closed with a plug to get out and vote in the midterms, saying that “nobody should be forced into the role of parenthood against their will.” The group’s performance of the song this night was exuberant and celebratory, even if the audience didn’t quite sing along as loudly as Rhiannon and Allison may have liked.

And with that, the lights came up for intermission. I made my way to one of the gift shops and was nearly crushed by the crowd that squeezed into the tiny space. There were LPs and CDs of the group’s album and various solo projects along with a rather nice poster for this particular performance. I thought about getting the poster as a souvenir but wasn’t sure I could get it home without ruining it. I also valued my life, so I squirmed my way out of the enthusiastically acquisitive throng and back to my seat. I passed some exhibits about Carnegie Hall and regretted not having time to look more closely. If/when I get back to New York it would be good to take a daytime tour of the venerable Hall. 

  • Freedom Is a Constant Struggle – The four women re-took the stage for a moving acapella version of this 1964 civil rights song (lyrics) credited to Roberta Slavit (whom I can find very little about) and evidently first performed by The Broadside Singers, a collective of contributors to the Broadside magazine that may or may not have included the likes of Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Buffy Sainte-Marie and many others. I’ve found very little information about the original recording, included on the YouTube playlist, but it is very close to the haunting version performed this night by Our Native Daughters.
  • Trouble So Hard – Amythyst introduced this 1937 song by one of her heroes, Vera Hall (lyrics). Amythyst recorded the song in 2016 with her band Amythyst Kiah and Her Chest of Glass; she is also featured with Gregory Porter on Moby’s 2021 version of the song retitled “Natural Blues.” Amythyst’s 2016 solo version on the YouTube playlist is very similar to this night’s performance, but it was even more powerful with all four voices harmonizing on the chorus.
  • SuperLover – Allison reached back to her Birds of Chicago days for this 2018 song (lyrics), name checking her husband, bandmate and the song’s writer, JT Nero. Allison performed it largely solo on banjo with a little help from the band’s instrumentalists, including a nice keyboard solo from Francesco.
  • Louisiana Man – Rhiannon introduced this as a song that, as a change of pace, was not about slavery or banjos, but was about a bad man. The 2016 Austin City Limits version on the YouTube playlist is very similar, with the same rhythm section rocking it. Rhiannon wrote this song but I haven’t found more specifics about it, not even lyrics, and there’s conflicting information whether it was on any of her albums. In any case, it was an upbeat crowd pleaser.
  • I Knew I Could Fly – Leyla took lead on this semi-sweet song from the album, track five (lyrics), inspired by Piedmont blues guitarist Etta Baker. The YouTube clip from the documentary tells the story more completely.
  • Darling Corey – Amythyst played this traditional tune solo on banjo, as she’s been performing it for years going back at least to her 2013 debut album, Dig (lyrics). Rhiannon has said she first came across Amythyst when a friend sent her a YouTube clip; it may well have been the 2014 clip included in my playlist. Amythyst credits the song to B.F. Shelton which he recorded at the 1927 Bristol Sessions but the song’s roots go back even further.
  • At the Purchaser’s Option – Rhiannon dove into this heartwrenching song from her 2017 album, Freedom Highway (lyrics). The song, which she penned, is always moving but was especially so this time as a full lament culminating with the four women chanting the chorus “You can take my body, you can take my bones…” as a four-part round. It drew a full standing ovation from the teary-eyed crowd, the emotional peak of the evening. The 2022 YouTube clip on the playlist with Rhiannon and Francesco doesn’t reach the same emotional level, but she tells the story of the song and the performance is terrific in its own right.
  • Georgia Rise – After the audience took a breath and Rhiannon expressed her thanks, she introduced this new song of hope written by Allison and JT Nero. Allison said they wrote it in support of Stacey Abrams and to help get out the vote in Georgia; the YouTube clip is an all-star version from FarmAid in September, only the second time it was performed. 
  • Black Myself – The show closed with Amythyst’s anthem, track one on Songs of Our Native Daughters (lyrics), the album’s mission statement and biggest “hit.” Amythyst noted it had been three years since they last performed this song together at Newport and more than four years since it was written and recorded. She said that working with these women had changed her life, “especially spiritually,” and was filled with gratitude – a sentiment that seemed shared with the others. This evening’s version of the song had everyone on their feet, clapping along if not actually quite shouting out the words. It was a celebration.
  • Lonesome Road/Up Above My Head – After initial bows and a brief departure from the stage, the whole group returned for an encore. Rhiannon thanked the audience once more then conjured up the spirit of Sister Rosetta Tharpe for what has become a staple ending for Rhiannon’s performances: a medley of The Lonesome Road and Up Above My Head. The choice was 100% appropriate. There was music and positively joyful spirits on stage, in the audience and up above our heads in old Carnegie Hall. Once again, the whole audience was on their feet, clapping and this time singing along in happy communion.

So that was the night, a terrific evening. As noted above, I was surprised there were no cameras at the event and no indication it was recorded for a live album. In the final bows Francesco took a selfie of the group.

I’m dismayed that I haven’t found more press or reviews of the concert beyond the Brooklyn Vegan’s. For the moment, this post and playlist may represent the most detailed documentation of the concert. I hope that’s not the case for long.

Nor was there any mention of a follow up album or project involving these four talented women. I certainly hope there will be. They have hinted at it in several interviews but that was a while ago. This foursome’s melding of history, musicianship, songcraft and spirit are a powerfully refreshing elixir that I wish was more widely popular and recognized. Despite the often difficult subject matter, theirs is some of the most thoughtful, thought-provoking, positive, uplifting and downright entertaining music I’ve heard in a long time. Each of these women are great on their own and I’m eager to hear whatever they produce, but they are even more powerful working together as a collective, a band, maybe even a movement. 

A few days before the show, a person close to me (who shall go nameless) – to whom I had spoken several times about the concert – asked “Who are you going to see on Friday? The Whippersnappers with Belinda Carlisle?” No. I’m not sure I can get that person to read this post or watch the playlist, but I hope someday they and many others open their ears and hearts to this marvelous music and message.

In compiling this post, I’ve found a few other links and articles worth noting. I’ve gathered them below – and there are more items at the end of the YouTube playlist – for those inclined to dig further.

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Last updated on April 9, 2023