Giddens, Rhiannon: Hope Is The Thing With Feathers

Pulitzer and Grammy-winning artist Rhiannon Giddens’ new album Hope is the Thing with Feathers was inspired by the beauty of people coming together and drawing strength from each other. It was intentionally recorded live with no frills and few overdubs, just pure and essential music that captures the feeling of community, clarity, as well as the joy and power of creating together. From exploring the lineages that make American music to the community-oriented spirit in which it was conceived and recorded, in many ways the album tells the story of the last 20 years of Giddens’ life.

Hope is the Thing with Feathers features Giddens’ key collaborators from throughout her career. Giddens (lead vocals, minstrel banjo, fiddle) is joined by longtime bassist Jason Sypher, Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, Congolese artist Niwel Tsumbu (guitars), and Louisiana native Dirk Powell on multiple instruments, as well as her very first bandmate and fellow North Carolinian Justin Robinson, her nephew Justin Harrington, Dirk’s daughter Amelia Powell, Charly Lowry, and Giddens’ sister Lalenja Harrington.

Says Giddens: “Louisiana, the Congo, Italy, the Carolinas - all of these influences and people coming together to make something: that is American music. It’s how American music came to be, and that was the original thought of creating a band with the musicians that I’ve been playing with for years, and featured on this album.”

Giddens’ seventh studio album was made in sessions nestled within North American tours in 2024 and 2025, at The Cypress House in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. It was co-produced by Giddens and longtime collaborator and bandmate Dirk Powell, who also engineered and mixed the album. Recording live was crucial, to bring the listener into the centre of the room. Giddens says that she cannot play without stomping, which can be felt on the opening track. Background noise and the sound of the musicians talking to each other before takes were also intentionally left in.

Hope is the Thing with Feathers features four original songs written by Giddens and Powell (including lead single ‘Carolina Rain’) alongside interpretations of pieces by North Carolinians Ola Belle Reed and Elizabeth Cotten, and Indigenous activist, singer-songwriter and storyteller Pura Fé, as well as traditional songs including ‘Cluck Old Hen’ and ‘Walk with Me’ (a duet with Giddens’ sister). The title track was inspired by the poem by Emily Dickinson.

Says Giddens: “This is most certainly a time where hope is needed more than ever; I was sitting in a hotel room pondering this poem when the tune was downloaded into my brain; I sang it for Niwel and he finished it with his beautiful harmonic movement. Art reaches across generations and continents to be completed, sometimes, by folks who will never meet.”

1. Angel Fire Rise
2. Hope Is the Thing with Feathers
3. Step Away Blues
4. Wish in Vain
5. Carolina Rain
6. High on a Mountain
7. Freight Train
8. Walk with Me
9. Cluck Old Hen
10. Going Home