Album Review – Rhiannon Giddens’ “there is no Other”
Hank Williams III once said, “The older you sound, the more punk you’re being.” If that’s the case, then Rhiannon Giddens is the Johnny Rotten of folk music.
The purpose of her latest record, there is no Other, is to trace the lineage of traditional music back so far, the differences in expressions, vocal cadence, rhythm, and mood are almost imperceptible no matter the region of origin, or the influence. What’s most important is these expressions emote a human feeling in notions that are universal, even though sometimes the dialects couldn’t be more different, and their modes may sound fey to many ears. The objective is to use music to illustrate how humanity is more of a collective as opposed to legions of warring tribes as many would lead you to believe. In this effort, there is no Other grandly succeeds, even if those most needing to heed its lessons won’t be inclined to remain attentive, or might miss the point entirely.
A collaborative record with Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, there is no Other is two adept musicians drawing from deep wells of musical knowledge and instrumental proficiency to offer an involved and moody musical encounter that is both inspiring and informative. This is not country music or even American folk in the traditional sense, though these disciplines are intertwined in this effort just as much as Gospel homages, Gaelic styles, African rhythms, Eastern textures, and even an Italian traditional called “Pizzica di San Vito” sung in its native tongue by Giddens.
Rhiannon Giddens is a powerhouse of swelling talent that is fair to characterize as singular and peerless in our generation. Even if the style of there is no Other‘s opening song “Ten Thousand Voices” doesn’t adhere to your musical sensibilities, it’s hard for the heart to not feel the rich power with which Rhiannon Giddens delivers her message. When gentleness is needed, like in the opening of the song “Trees on the Mountains,” Rhiannon is able to enact this treatment with intimacy, affection, and ease as well. The mere presence of Giddens extols a sort of musical magic and reverence that compels the ear to be attentive. The pulsating and primal rhythms she conjures with Francesco Turrisi on the instrumental “there is no Other” is palpable throughout the primary nervous system, stimulating both mind and limb.
Rhiannon’s rendition of “Wayfaring Stranger” gives something familiar for country listeners to latch onto, as does the lyricism of “Trees on the Mountains” which conveys the common country theme of love betrayed. The reverent and hopeful “He Will See You Through” bores down to the Gospel influence that infers country in equal measures as it does soul and R&B. And perhaps most important, Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi figure out how to present all the seemingly disparate influences and mismatched instruments in a surprisingly cohesive manner, with only a few speed bumps impeding your ability to listen cover to cover, and find yourself immersed in this work.
To assign political motives to there is no Other is to wholly misunderstand the album, down to the way the title lacks proper capitalization to emphasize the similarities in the human experience. The effort here is unity, and to deconstruct tribalism and identity politics as opposed to being a party to them, and doing so by not trying to resolve the differences in genre, but by emphasizing the uniqueness in expression. Nonetheless, this hasn’t, and won’t keep some from misdiagnosing this project for their own devices. That’s not to say there isn’t a message here. It’s to say that message is less tethered to judgement or one political alignment, and is more worried about broadening perspectives to tear barriers down between humans, something Rhiannon Giddens has championed throughout her career. It’s a message of hope, and a way forward.
there is no Other is also not meant to be a work of commercial music. Rhiannon Giddens was awarded 2017’s MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant,” which afforded her a very large six figure sum to pursue her music and other creative pursuits free from consumer concerns. While this is a positive development for Giddens personally, and for those who want to keep her musical endeavors pure, it also puts this music at arms length from the much wider audience it deserves.
The voice and perspective of Rhiannon Giddens is something that culture at large should cherish, and even though it feels a world apart from her efforts on there is no Other, she’s one of the few women who has seen recent success in commercial country, charting a #6 song on radio with Eric Church on “Kill A Word.” She’s also appeared on country’s major award shows multiple times. But there is no Other will do little to spread the joy of Rhiannon’s music beyond the niche realm of Americana. Unlike her 2015 record Tomorrow Is My Turn, or her work with the Grammy-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, limited to no effort to embed wide appeal for antiquated folk material is employed here. It’s one thing to labor to preserve, which is an important pursuit. It’s another to help spread awareness and appeal for something so it helps support itself.
One of the reasons so many can be sold on the misguided notion that someone like Lil Nas X symbolizes an important moment of integration for country music is because they are perfectly ignorant that an artist like Rhiannon Giddens even exists. Like so many of country and roots music’s African American performers, Giddens is summarily ignored by many of the same popular culture institutions and media entities demanding more diversity, while ironically she and other African American artists are doing more to help preserve the roots of the music compared to their white counterparts.
It would be disingenuous to characterize there is no Other as purely country, or commercially accessible. But dwelling on these concerns is to foolishly gaze beyond the alchemical wisdom imparted by Rhiannon Giddens’ musical efforts, and afforded to those with open hearts. Giddens should be approached as the boundless generator of inspiration she is, aided valiantly in this instance by Francesco Turrisi.
May 20, 2019 @ 8:41 am
I watched her perform the other day in Baltimore. Let me just say it was an experience.
Fabulous album, and great review (as always). But I must say, sometimes Trigger’s inclination to de-politicize is self-defeating. Trigger writes:
> To assign political motives to there is no Other is to wholly misunderstand the album, down to the way the title lacks proper capitalization to emphasize the similarities in the human experience. The effort here is unity, and to deconstruct tribalism and identity politics as opposed to being a party to them, and doing so by not trying to resolve the differences in genre, but by emphasizing the uniqueness in expression.
In spirit, I entirely agree. But one shouldn’t forget that a call for unity, to get beyond identity politics *is* itself a political statement. As Trigger goes on to say, Gidden’s specific way of doing it is by emphasizing the uniqueness in expression, and that means how we live together after tribalism and identity politics isn’t an easy question that has a straightforward answer. And that, I think, is also a political statement — Giddens is giving her own answer to the question. To miss those nuanced albeit subtle political elements in Gidden’s music is, in a different sense, also to misunderstand it.
May 20, 2019 @ 9:07 am
Politics is the action of taking two separate things and pitting them against each other. There is a headlong effort at the moment to decree everything in society is “political” by the politicians and media who depend on this polarization for self-preservation through both the attention it affords, and money it allows to flow into the political industrial complex.
My interpretation of Rhiannon’s efforts here is to bore down to our common humanity in a way that does not take sides or judgement, by exposes our similarities. In my opinion, this is the antithesis of political.
May 20, 2019 @ 9:18 am
Old polisci guy here. I think it would be helpful to differentiate between “political” and “partisan”.
The “political” is how humans organize themselves and live together in society. There’s not much that isn’t political. “Partisan” is taking a side with one organized group or another.
“We must live together in unity” is absolutely a political statement, but not necessarily a partisan one.
Either way, Giddens is a singular talent, and I’m looking forward to listening to this album.
May 20, 2019 @ 9:27 am
You might like to buy into the more idyllic, or classic interpretation of what politics is, but my eyes are wide open to what’s happening in the here and now. We can bog down all day discussing what politics is. My point is that Rhiannon’s effort here was to unify. We saw this same action with the last Kacey Musgraves album. Drawing from their experiences with Kacey’s previous works, they presented “Golden Hour” as a political work, when Kacey herself said she purposefully avoiding being political, or polarizing. Nonetheless, the media couldn’t help but pursue political narratives through Kacey’s music with zeal.
May 20, 2019 @ 9:47 am
On the one hand, I feel almost inclined to say this kind of dodging and language game is beneath you, Trigger. What politics is isn’t something up for grabs; while there’s not a dictionary definition that will satisfy everyone, there’s a long tradition of thought re: politics, dating back at least to Aristotle, in the West that aligns more with Lance’s suggestion than yours. To equate “political” with “partisan” has the danger of diminishing the significance behind both terms. I take it you wouldn’t be too happy with someone making all sorts of claims about country music that are based on idiosyncratic attitudes regarding “what country music is for me”, right?
Setting this aside, I think it’s more important nevertheless to highlight what we all seem to agree: Giddens’ album is one that calls for unity. Now, I think that is by definition a political statement, albeit not one commonly pursued and favored by the media. You think it is apolitical. At the end of the day, I’m willing to say, our disagreement is merely verbal. I just want to also point out that given the way you delineate the political and the apolitical, your admirable efforts in recent years of criticizing the politicization of country music and the media’s reporting of it, takes on a much narrower meaning.
May 21, 2019 @ 5:12 am
Hell, that’s the definition they teach you in business school, too.
Depressing as it may be that “We’re all human and more unites us than separates us” is a political statement…it absolutely is one, in 2019 and throughout human history.
May 20, 2019 @ 9:45 am
You’re right…it’s not country or American folk music but it’s good stuff. I’m hearing a lot of Loreena McKennitt in both the music, arrangements and vocals.
May 20, 2019 @ 10:11 am
If “there is no Other,” then all meaningful difference has been defined out of existence and there is no country music, anywhere.
This is a cost-free (= vanity) project and will appeal to about 5,000 members of the edumacated elite who think everybody has to join their borderless ethnic restaurant of everybody is awesome. Giddens sounds like the earnest girl who leaves the small town for the city, comes back after being ignored, and starts singing about how everybody in that small town is, deep down and unknown to themselves, a fascist meat-head.
You can dress it up all you want, but people are right to be suspicious of music that has designs on them, one way or another. Plus, I don’t think her voice suits this music. Not many voices could.
May 20, 2019 @ 12:22 pm
“Othering people is something that humans have done for ever,” Giddens acknowledges, “but when it got wrapped up in the economic explosion that happened in the 1700s and 1800s, then it becomes very economically important for people to stay othered, so they could still be exploited. And of course it’s so politically important because the more that we come together, the more that we realise that we outnumber the folks who are trying to run the world and keep everything for themselves.”
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/othering-people-is-something-humans-have-done-for-ever-1.3809902
May 20, 2019 @ 12:36 pm
Though I understand and often see the phenomenon you are talking about, I don’t get that vibe from her at all. Anything besides the title of the album that lends itself to such a “design?” We live in pretty cynical times if we think any effort to come together MUST be suspicious.
May 20, 2019 @ 4:26 pm
You can’t come together by someone’s effort, just as you can’t have mandatory fun.
Both extremes of the political spectrum need to learn this sh*t pronto.
May 20, 2019 @ 5:23 pm
Agreed. However, if you look at the ACTIONS of Rhiannon: Her dedication to the craft, her collaborations from a wide variety of the spectrum, and her seemingly deep respect for the uniqueness and importance for tradition and roots music, I would think that has a lot more weight than a narrow interpretation of an album title, and thinking that it implies somehow “no country music, anywhere”
May 21, 2019 @ 6:02 am
Here she is talking about her problems with the hoopla around the Beyoncé appearance at the CMA awards show. Seem like a sentiment more than a few people around here could get behind. And she certainly doesn’t sound like someone advocating for “no country music, anywhere.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbduBDQbBpg
May 21, 2019 @ 8:52 am
Holy shit. Why hasn’t this video been in my life for the last two years?
Good find.
May 21, 2019 @ 8:06 am
Thanks for that Jack. She’s making the same point that Trigger did on that issue, which of course seems like the most logical reaction – and somehow missed by the media and by “twitter.” Not many people have the guts to question “the queen.” She’s a badass imo.
May 21, 2019 @ 9:13 am
Yes indeed, Scott.
Hey Trigger, I found it by accident early last month during all the Lil Nas X excitement when looking for another video I saw once where she talked about how sometimes black folks at her shows would approach her after the show and sheepishly tell her that they always liked country music.
May 21, 2019 @ 11:16 am
My beef is with “there is no Other” logic, not with Giddens herself.
I agree with BLM folks who feel that the retort that All Lives Matter is, although true, yet another way of brushing away specific people’s experience. Think of saving country music. Do you want some pop douche coming to SCM preaching “all genres matter!” when you’ve been trying to praise the specific virtues of country music? No.
Why? Because differences are good. If there no real differences, then we can’t learn from each other. We also can’t develop anything, either, because what we’d like to develop will disappear into the Monogenre. To develop something, you need to cultivate it, nurture it, keep it going, make it adapt, keep it real, and so on. But not change it radically, because then you lose it all.
Of course I’ll listen to more of Giddens’s record. Logic whatever aside, the bar for this kind of ambition is really high. The Odisea Negra project is a good example. Look it up on YouTube. Stellar music.
May 22, 2019 @ 12:34 am
Arguing that we shouldn’t “Other-ize” people really isn’t arguing against the importance of diversity, though.
We can celebrate our differences while simultaneously acknowledging the common humanity expressed through the various folk musical traditions she explores in this album.
“I don’t view people of different cultural backgrounds as an ‘Other'” is a meaningfully distinct statement from “I don’t see race/gender/whatever.”
May 20, 2019 @ 8:51 pm
Nothing says reaching like trying to find meaning in an album title in all caps.
May 21, 2019 @ 4:14 am
Being from Italy i have to say that hearin Rhiannon Giddens singing a “tarantella” is something i never would have thought of.
May 21, 2019 @ 9:54 am
I can’t believe that people don’t just die of exhaustion with this political bullshit. Just listen to this record and hear the human in it. On that level it’s incredible.
May 23, 2019 @ 10:18 am
I’ve always said that the Tar Heel Mount Rushmore had five faces: Mike, Dale, Doc, Earl, and Andy. One of these days I expect I’m gonna say it has six.