Factory Girl Rhiannon Giddens

• 1 That Lonesome Road 03:06
• 2 Mouth Music 02:53
• 3 Moonshiner's Daughter 03:59
• 4 Underneath the Harlem Moon 03:50
• 5 Factory Girl 06:59
• Total Runtime 20:47

Info for Factory Girl

On the heels of her highly acclaimed solo debut Tomorrow Is My Turn, Rhiannon Giddens's five-song vinyl EP Factory Girl. The EP is culled from the same T Bone Burnett–produced sessions that yielded Tomorrow Is My Turn, which the Wall Street Journal said 'confirms the arrival of a significant talent whose voice and distinctive approach communicate the simmering emotion at the core of the songs.' Additionally, the Los Angeles Times called the album 'a collection that should solidify her status as one of the bright new lights in pop music.' Giddens continues touring in support of the album and EP on November 6, with new international tour dates announced for early 2016, including several as part of Transatlantic Sessions.

As with Tomorrow Is My Turn, Giddens again records traditional songs and rethinks ones written or made famous by her musical heroes Ethel Waters and Sister Rosetta Tharp. Giddens co-wrote, with her sister Lalenja Harrington and Burnett, 'Moonshiner's Daughter,' which draws inspiration from family lore about her great-grandfather, a notorious rum-runner. A traditional Gaelic mouth music tune also is featured, along with the title track, a traditional Irish song for which Giddens, deeply troubled by the 2013 factory collapse in Bangladesh that killed 1,100 workers, wrote additional lyrics.

The sessions for the album and EP took place in Los Angeles and Nashville, with a multi-generational group of players assembled by Burnett. Musicians on Factory Girl include Burnett; fiddle player Gabe Witcher and double bassist Paul Kowert of label-mates Punch Brothers; percussionist Jack Ashford of Motown's renowned Funk Brothers; drummer Jay Bellerose; guitarist Colin Linden; veteran Nashville session bassist Dennis Crouch; and Giddens's Carolina Chocolate Drops touring band-mates, multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins and beat-boxer Adam Matta.

Rhiannon Giddens
Singer and multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens is best known as the frontwoman of African-American string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, whose 2010 album Genuine Negro Jig earned them a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album. Raised in Piedmont, North Carolina, Giddens studied opera at the Oberlin Conservatory before relocating back home, where she became immersed in the rural musical traditions of that region.

A chance meeting with future bandmates Justin Robinson and Dom Flemons at the 2005 Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, North Carolina resulted in the formation of their first folk project, Sankofa Strings. Originally an outlet to perform various early African-American musical styles like blues, country, hot string jazz, and Caribbean, the bandmembers ended up learning much of their early repertoire from legendary old-time fiddler Joe Thompson. Adopting the name the Carolina Chocolate Drops, the group released four eclectic and well-respected albums before signing with Nonesuch Records to release its wildly successful 2010 breakthrough album. Following the success of Genuine Negro Jig, the band continued to tour and record with an ever-evolving lineup that remained centered around Giddens' powerful vocals and fiddle/banjo playing.

Drafted by producer T-Bone Burnett to perform solo at the 2013 Another Day, Another Time concert (celebrating the musical era of the film Inside Llewyn Davis) in New York, she gave a show-stopping performance of the Odetta classic "Waterboy," which was widely considered the highlight of the evening. Just a few months later in early 2014, she again worked with Burnett on the collaborative New Basement Tapes recording project, which featured Elvis Costello, Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Marcus Mumford (Mumford & Sons), and Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes) writing new music to recently discovered Bob Dylan lyrics.

Her own Burnett-produced solo debut, Tomorrow Is My Turn, was released a year later in February 2015.

This album contains no booklet.