Album title: Freedom Highway
Artist: Rhiannon Giddens
Genre: Folk/Americana/Old-Time
Nationality: American
Release date: February 24
Position in Discography: Second
Fear Factor: Moderate
Familiar with this artist? No
Familiar with the genre or subgenre? No
Average RYM Score: 3.29
What a great name Rhiannon is! Conjures up all sorts of magical images, legend and fairytales and so forth. Perhaps appropriate that this is then an album of road tales from America's history, and ooh is this dark when it kicks off. Love the banjo, slow and moody and very reminiscent of Bernie Leadon; her voice suits the music well and there's a real sense of drama building about this. Nice. This seems quite stripped down and barebones so far. I like this a lot. Her voice is really powerful without being overpowering: think Billie or Ella, you're in the basic area. Her cover of Baez's “Birmingham Sunday” sends chills, man. Chills.
Interesting: there's a rap coming out of nowhere on “Better Get It Right the First Time”, which is a kind of soul/gospel hybrid, though “We Could Fly” drags a little and is kind of dreary really. This is however quickly relieved by the dixieland bop of “Hey Bebe” with some super cool trumpet, trombone or some damn wind instrument anyway. Very jazzy, but that's kind of the problem. I see now why Wiki included the odd genre tag “Old-Time” here: the album has gone from a dark country/folk style into some kind of twenties jazz/ragtime thing, and I have to say I don't like the change. I've never quite altered my opinion so drastically of an album as I listened, but this is literally a record of two halves, and I'm losing interest as we enter the second half. Okay, it reverts to the original folk/country style eventually, but I'm just not as sold on this now as I was within the first three tracks.
Check out more from this artist? I'm really not sure
Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Yes
(would have been at least two points higher if the album had stayed the same quality as it began)
Expectation Index: 9