Getting into the banjo and discovering that it was an African-American instrument, it totally turned on its head my idea of American music – and then, through that, American history. Rhiannon Giddens Read Quote
We’re not here as a black band playing white string band music. You know, we play stuff in the Appalachians, we play stuff in the white community, but we really highlight the black community’s music. Rhiannon Giddens Read Quote
When I first heard the minstrel banjo – I played a gourd first – I almost lost my mind. I was like, Oh, my god. And then I went to Africa, to the Gambia, and studied the akonting, which is an ancestor of the banjo, and just that connection to me was just immense. Rhiannon Giddens Read Quote
I stood on people’s shoulders, so I want to be there for somebody else to take it even further. Rhiannon Giddens Read Quote
People say, ‘I’m tired of thinking about race, it’s a drag.’ Yeah, well, welcome to my life! I don’t care who you are. We have the time and the headspace for this stuff. The least you can do is take a moment. Rhiannon Giddens Read Quote
White people are so fragile, God bless ’em. ‘Well, I didn’t own slaves.’ No you didn’t. Nobody is asking you to take personal responsibility for this. But you’re a beneficiary of a system that did. Just own that and move on. Rhiannon Giddens Read Quote
I love the U.K. folk scene. In the States, nobody knows what to do with me. There’s still a very narrow definition of Americana. Rhiannon Giddens Read Quote
