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Rhiannon Giddens Returns to Charlotte and Leaves Plenty of Music in the Air

Nov 5, 2022

By Perry Tannenbaum, CVNC -- 

The truly treasurable experiences began when Giddens strode onstage and picked up her banjo; for her first song, "Spanish Mary," was co-written with Bob Dylan, with a fine orchestral arrangement for Lees and the CSO to luxuriate in. Shedding the banjo, Giddens followed up with "Julie's Aria" from Omar, co-written with Michael Abels, reminding us of her own capabilities as an operatic soprano. Yet within minutes, Giddens was delivering a smoking-hot version of "Water Boy," the pile-driving prison song immortalized in recorded versions by Paul Robeson, Odetta, and Harry Belafonte. No doubt, Giddens has listened repeatedly to all three of these cultural touchstones, for the simple hammering arrangement was borrowed from Odetta and Belafonte while the lyrical clarity hearkened back to Robeson. The Odetta recordings of "Water Boy" are unparalleled, particularly when it caps a medley begun with "I've Been Driving on Bald Mountain," shot through with explosive grunts and gasps from the hammer-wielding prisoner. But Giddens has found her own path toward heightening the intensity at the end, and the orchestra beats delivered by CSO added jolts of electricity throughout the piece that simple guitar strums couldn't match. Better still, Giddens' preamble, "At the Purchaser's Option," was certainly a coupling with "Water Boy" that civil rights champion Odetta would have appreciated, repeatedly delivering a "you can take my body, you can take my bones, you can take my blood but not my soul" mantra.

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