There is No Other | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | May 3, 2019 | |||
Genre | Folk | |||
Length | 45:00 | |||
Label | Nonesuch | |||
Producer | Joe Henry | |||
Rhiannon Giddens chronology | ||||
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There Is No Other is a collaborative studio album by American singer-songwriter and Carolina Chocolate Drops vocalist Rhiannon Giddens, and Italian jazz musician Francesco Turrisi. The album was produced by Joe Henry and was released on May 3, 2019 by Nonesuch Records. [1] [2]
The track "I'm on My Way" from the album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best American Roots Performance at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AnyDecentMusic? | 8.1/10 [3] |
Metacritic | 86/100 [4] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [5] |
Evening Standard | [6] |
Financial Times | [7] |
The Guardian | [8] |
The Irish Times | [9] |
Mojo | [10] |
Pitchfork | 7.6/10 [11] |
Rolling Stone | [12] |
The Times | [13] |
Uncut | 9/10 [14] |
According to the review aggregator Metacritic , There is No Other received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 86 out of 100 from 8 critic scores. [4]
The album, which primarily features Giddens and Turrisi playing together on several instruments, presents a mixture of interpretations to a diverse collection of songs from around the world with two original songs (by Giddens). Since its release, There Is No Other was publicly introduced as an album which is "Tracing the overlooked movement of sounds from Africa and the Arabic world and their influence on European and American music..." and which "...illuminates the universality of music and the commonality of the human experience". [15]
The reviews usually followed these lines of introduction, and mainly praised the unique implementation and the high quality outcome. However, among the writing concerning the album there is an article which stands out for reviewing There Is No Other in a wider musicological context, pointing out its relation to the work of Peter Van der Merwe, especially Van der Merwe's meticulously researched book "Origins of the Popular Style".
The article, written by John Jeremiah Sullivan (as an in-depth examination of the cultural and historical context of Giddens' work as a whole) explains that in his research: "Van der Merwe shows how the “gliding chromaticism” characteristic of the blues spread via Islamic influence into West Africa (in particular the Senegambia region) and, via Spain, into Ireland and the “Celtic fringe.” From those places, these styles and sounds rode farther west, to North America, on slave ships and immigrant ships. In the American South, the Celtic and the African musical traditions met. It was an odd family reunion. Each culture had its own songs, but the idioms understood one another. The result was American music.". Against that background, Sullivan therefore opines that "the album that Giddens and Turrisi have made together functions as a kind of proof of Van der Merwe’s musicological thesis". [16] [17]
"To my ears, the album is the first true Rhiannon Giddens record. Joe Henry produced it, beautifully, by getting as far out of the way as possible. The arrangements are stark. The engineering and the mike placement are direct and intimate. It’s the sonic equivalent of a long still shot in natural light". [18]
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Ten Thousand Voices" | 2:57 |
2. | "Gonna Write Me a Letter" | 4:03 |
3. | "Wayfaring Stranger" | 4:47 |
4. | "There Is No Other" | 2:25 |
5. | "Trees on the Mountains" | 5:15 |
6. | "Pizzica di San Vito" | 2:07 |
7. | "Brown Baby" | 5:07 |
8. | "Briggs' Forró" | 4:03 |
9. | "Little Margaret" | 3:03 |
10. | "Black Swan" | 4:17 |
11. | "I'm on My Way [19] " | 2:57 |
12. | "He Will See You Through" | 3:59 |
Chart (2019) | Peak position |
---|---|
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [20] | 99 |
Scottish Albums (OCC) [21] | 23 |
US Top Tastemaker Albums ( Billboard ) [22] | 24 |
Geeshie Wiley was an American country blues singer and guitar player who recorded six songs for Paramount Records, issued on three records in April 1930. According to the blues historian Don Kent, Wiley "may well have been the rural South's greatest female blues singer and musician". Little is known of her life, and there are no known photographs of her. She may have been born Lillie Mae Boone, later Lillie Mae Scott.
John Jeremiah Sullivan is an American writer, musician, teacher, and editor. He is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, a contributing editor of Harper's Magazine, and the southern editor of The Paris Review. In 2014, he edited TheBest American Essays, a collection in which his work has been featured in previous years. He has also served on the faculty of Columbia University, Sewanee: The University of the South, and other institutions.
The Carolina Chocolate Drops were an old-time string band from Durham, North Carolina. Their 2010 album, Genuine Negro Jig, won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards, and was number 9 in fRoots magazine's top 10 albums of 2010.
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Calling Me Home may refer to:
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