Discover Rhiannon Giddens
Did you know that recording artist Rhiannon Giddens (pronounced ree-ANN-un) is a trained opera singer, composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist? Use this page to discover more about her connection to country music!
Rhiannon Giddens was born February 21, 1977, in Greensboro, North Carolina. A trained opera singer who plays the banjo and fiddle, she has used her gifts to perform and record in genres ranging from gospel and folk to bluegrass and the blues. Giddens has devoted much of her career to bringing to light the often-forgotten contributions of Black musicians to the early development of American music, especially country music.
History of the Banjo
The instrument we now know as the banjo has its origins in the Caribbean and colonial American in the seventeenth century. Enslaved people and their descendants built and played early versions the banjo based on memories of West African stringed instruments made from gourds (a hard-shelled fruit). Spreading throughout the United States over many years, the banjo became deeply rooted in early American culture and was at first played primarily played by Black Americans. Eventually, as the popularity of the banjo spread throughout America, it became associated with country music and grew into the instrument we know today.
Banjo of Rhiannon Giddens. This banjo was hand-built by Jim Hartel as a reproduction of a banjo built in 1858 by Levi Brown in Baltimore, Maryland.
Ngoni
This instrument is called a Sora Ngoni. Also known as the hunter’s harp, this instrument came from the Mandé region of West Africa and dates back to the 1800s. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Early Fretless Banjo
Homemade banjo, 1890s. Before the banjo was mass produced in instrument factories and widely sold, many Americans created their own banjos from available items. This fretless banjo was created from hand-split white oak and groundhog hide by Victory Crawford of Blair’s Gap, Tennessee.
Rhiannon Giddens Sound: Her Brand of Folk Music
The music catalog of Rhiannon Giddens is expansive and diverse, often blending elements of what she refers to as “her brand of folk music” into various genres, mediums, and projects. Giddens has released four albums under her own name and is a member of additional music groups, including the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Our Native Daughters. In 2020, Rhiannon Giddens was appointed to the position of Artistic Director of Silkroad, a cross-cultural music organization.
Rhiannon Giddens and the Silkroad Ensemble.
The Carolina Chocolate Drops
The Carolina Chocolate Drops are a Black stringband founded by Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, and Justin Robinson. Formed in 2005 after Flemons, Giddens, and Robinson attended the Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, North Carolina, the band celebrated their twentieth anniversary in 2025.
What is a Stringband? A stringband is a music ensemble made up of mostly string instruments. Stringbands were popular in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. They often played early forms of country music. Frequently, stringbands would feature a banjo and a fiddle. Those instruments were equally popular with white and Black rural musicians.
The fourth studio album of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Genuine Negro Jig, was released on February 16, 2010. The album won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album.
Our Native Daughters
Our Native Daughters is made up of four Black female banjo players, Amythyst Kiah, Allison Russell, Leyla McCalla, and Rhiannon Giddens. Songs of Our Native Daughters highlights stories of struggle, resistance, and hope, presented from the perspective of Black women in America.
Songs of Our Native Daughters is the first album by the group Our Native Daughters. It was released in 2019.
Biscuits & Banjos Foundation
The Biscuits & Banjos Foundation was founded by Rhiannon Giddens in 2026. The foundation states that its mission is to “celebrate the African Diaspora’s role in shaping American identity and culture through music, literature, food, and community.”. Born out of an idea twenty years early at the Black Banjo Gathering, the Biscuits and Banjos Festival launched in April 2025 to celebrate the rich history and culture of Black stringbands, old-time music, and Southern food traditions.
Flyer from the Biscuits & Banjos festival held in Durham, North Carolina, 2025.
Biscuit Recipe
Biscuit Recipe from Rhiannon Giddens (adapted from Southern Living magazine). Makes 10-12 biscuits.
- 2 ½ cups self-rising flour (I use White Lily Self-Rising Flour that has been in the freezer)
- 1 stick unsalted butter, frozen overnight
- 1 cup buttermilk, chilled
- 2 tsp butter melted
Measure a piece of parchment paper to fit your sheet pan. Be sure to make it longer but exactly as wide, so you can use the overhang to lift the sheet when there are biscuits on top. Set aside.
Sift the flour into a bowl, then grate in the frozen butter (I use a box grater, the large holes side). Toss together briefly (but no need to work the butter into the dough). Put in the freezer.
While the bowl is in the freezer, preheat the oven to 475 degrees F. If you have an electric oven, put the pan in the oven and heat it up without the parchment paper. If you have a gas oven, you can keep the pan out of the oven and place the parchment paper in it. This is all in pursuit of nice and crispy bottoms.
Make a well in the middle of the butter/flour mixture and pour in the buttermilk. Always have more on hand in case you need it—I usually have to add a bit. Stir until it starts to come together. It should be pretty sticky and a bit wet. Turn it out onto a well-floured surface and pat it into a rectangle (you can use a rolling pin if it helps).
Fold the dough in thirds like a letter and flatten out, then turn and do it again in the other direction. Do this whole process at least once more, for a total of four sets of folds. This is what takes the most experience; you’ll eventually learn how much handling is enough. Aim for handling less, not more.
Roll or pat out and start cutting your biscuits. Use a biscuit cutter or a glass and be careful not to twist (that is a myth that will end up actually curtailing your biscuit’s rise). If the dough is in that sweet spot of not too wet but not too worked, the cutter will not stick to the dough, and if it’s a glass, it will make a nice little “womp” sound.
Place the biscuits on the parchment paper in a honeycomb pattern so that there are no spaces. This will help the biscuits rise. If you like biscuits that are crispy all around and not as tall, you can place them with space around them or only touching on the sides
Move the biscuit-laden parchment with the overhang onto the pan. This will take practice. You may brush melted butter on top of the biscuits at this point.
Bake at 475°F for 12-15 minutes until lightly browned. You can feel they are done by shaking one with your fingertip on top—if they are too moveable, they aren’t quite set.
Place them in a basket lined with a tea towel and cover. They will stay nice and moist this way. Put the leftovers straight into the fridge to be reheated in the oven when ready.
