Redtree Times

Well, it’s time for Sunday morning music.  I don’t keep up with music as closely as I once did.  My mind is occupied in different ways these days and I tend to hold on to music and artists that I know, only stepping outside my comfort zone occasionally to seek something new– at least new for me.  Sometimes I just stumble across it.  Such is the case with Rhiannon Giddens.

I caught a short segment with this musician who hails from Greensboro, North Carolina on last week’s CBS Sunday Morning and was instantly transfixed by the performances they featured.  I’ve listened to a number of tracks from her throughout the week and have yet to come across one that didn’t just sail on the strength of her voice.  Just a wonderful talent.

She is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory where she studied opera so you might think she would be singing classical pieces but she works mainly in the field of folk and traditional music, playing both the violin and banjo.  But even those two fields can’t contain her.  I can’t imagine any genre in which she couldn’t stand out.  She does a version of La Vie En Rose in French that is absolutely beautiful and her cover of She’s Got You almost comes up to the level of the epic original from Patsy Cline.

I am a little embarrassed that it took me so long to come across Rhiannon Giddens.  I guess I should start paying more attention.  Who knows what other great talents I have been missing?  Here’s a version of the song Waterboy that I think is a tour de force and below it is the CBS Sunday Morning segment that features a little more about her.  Great stuff.

Have a great Sunday…