Rhiannon Giddens to Drop First Solo Album in Six Years with ‘You’re the One’

Rhiannon Giddens has new music on the way.

On August 18, Giddens will release her first solo album in six years, You’re the One. It also marks her first album of all original songs.

“This collection of 12 songs written over the course of Giddens’ career bursts with life-affirming energy, drawing from the folk music that she knows so deeply, as well as its pop descendants,” as described in a press release. The dozen songs cross genres from blues and jazz to country and Cajun. The singer is offering fans a taste of the album with the title track, a banjo-led folk song inspired by a special moment she shared with her now 10-year-old son after he was born.

Giddens’ upcoming third solo album follows Freedom Highway released in 2017, which reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Folk Albums chart. Giddens has also been involved in multiple bands. She was the frontwoman of the folk string band The Carolina Chocolate Drops, whose last album Leaving Eden was released in 2012. The band has been on hiatus since 2014. She’s also worked with Allison Russell, Amythyst Kiah and Leyla McCalla as Our Native Daughters, with their debut 2019 album, Songs of Our Native Daughters, addressing societal issues such as racism and sexism. Most recently, she collaborated with her musical and life partner, Italian singer and composer Francesco Turrisi, on their 2021 album They’re Calling Me Home. Turrisi is also featured on You’re the One.

“I hope that people just hear American music,” Giddens says in a press release. “Blues, jazz, Cajun, country, gospel, and rock—it’s all there. I like to be where it meets organically. They’re fun songs, and I wanted them to have as much of a chance as they could to reach people who might dig them but don’t know anything about what I do. If they’re introduced to me through this record, they might go listen to other music I’ve made and make some new discoveries.” 

Giddens will spend the remainder of spring and summer touring throughout the United Kingdom and the United States, continuing into early 2024.

Photo Credit: Ebru Yildiz/Courtesy of Shore Fire Media