With the singer, violinist and banjo player Rhiannon Giddens successfully revived traditional black string band music. On her second solo album Freedom Highway she shows that she has a lot more to offer, in which traditions are not sacred. Giddens studied opera before converting to American folk music. It is good to hear that she has a trained voice. It always sounds smooth, clear and above all easy
… to understand. Carried she sings folk and blues songs with slow marching rhythms and haunted polyphonic choruses. Songs she wrote herself alongside traditionals, often sounding like toiling work songs from rural America. But there is also room for rap, such as in the solid Better Get It Right The First Time. It is precisely this breaking through of traditions that makes Freedom Highway a sparkling americana album.more
