Rhiannon Giddens — Factory Girl E.P. (Review)
One thing that gathered a huge appreciation from in recent years is Americana and more traditional country/folk music. I remember listening to the radio at my prior job, the only thing I had to pass the time, and falling in love with Nashville’s Roots radio. One band I remember the DJ bring up was the Carolina Chocolate Drops. The band is an all African American roots folk/bluegrass band that got their start at a Black Banjo Gathering in 2005 at Appalachian State University. The group has released 6 albums before band members Dom Flemons and Rhiannon Giddens left to pursue their own solo projects. Giddens is a fantastic fiddler and banjo player. She clearly has a fantastic reverence for the instrument and its history. My more recent discovery of Amythyst Kiah got me back on Giddens, Flemons, and the Carolina Chocolate Drops back onto my radar. With a genre so full of white artists, it’s always a welcomed delight to find an artist/band with featuring people of POC and their stories. Giddens’s reverence for the culture of black folk music and gift on for songwriting and singing are something to behold. My first foray into Giddens’s solo work is with her Factory Girl E.P.. Sit down, grab a whiskey, and let’s dive in.
“The Lonesome Road” is the E.P.’s opener. The song is a clear ode to the very roots of early country music with touch of folk and jazz. It’s a toe tapper for sure. Giddens’s fiddling is spotlighted perfectly here. The lyrics have an air of gospel to them as Giddens’s sings, “Look down, look down that lonesome road/ Before you travel on/ Look up, look up and seek your maker/ Before Gabriel blows his horn”. Get your life together before your life’s at its end. Giddens’s vocals harken back to the early 1900s maginificently.
“Mouth Music” is a fantastic blend of an almost Irish inspired skat behind a beatboxed beat. This breaks in with an even faster skat with the hum of the fiddle and percussion. It’s infectious in its sense of motion. Though the song lacks lyrics, its organization and arrangement conjures the image an Appalachian Irish hoedown. Put this song on, pour an ale, and get to moving. It’s worth it.
“Moonshiner’s Daughter” is a fantastic story song. Here, Giddens tells the tale of a young woman whose mother died shortly after her birth disappointed she a girl. As she grew up, she learned her father’s trade (moonshine running) and became quite proficient. Her life takes a turn in the second verse. Her father gets caught by the law and tells her to escape. She only hears gunshots as she escapes. Giddens ends the song stating she’s unafriad of living life like her father and meeting the same fate. I absolute love how Gidden’s structured and delivered the song.
“Underneath the Harlem Moon” calls back to the delta blues infused folk country music from black artists of the time. It’s a beautifully jovial song. Giddens sings a celebration of black culture. The song pays tribute to the evolution of the culture from the end of the 1800s up to present day. This builds upon itself with each verse. Sonically, the music marries the early folk/blues sound of Black music from the turn of the century with these every changing time references. It’s a treat to hear.
“Factory Girl” is the final track on the EP. Sonically its my favorite in the collection, which was a difficult choice to make. It’s has such an ominous tone throughout with its constant drone of organ. The addition of strings, bass, and banjo only add to the tense melancholy mood of the song. Giddens’s takes the point of view of man who has fallen for a factory girl. Over time the two would grow closer and closer as he waited for her daily on her way to work. This is until one day she does not meet with him, only for him to discover she had died in the factory she worked out due to factory’s disrepair. This tension just builds throughout the track sonically casting this miasma of doom onto their relationship. The final lines paint a chilling sadness onto the story as it calls back to her scent from their meeting, “As I stood there, a whisper, it did caress me/ A faint scent of roses my senses begun/ I lifted my face and I saw that above me/ A thousand young butterflies darkened the sun”.
I am floored by the beauty in Giddens delivery of each song and artistry displayed by each track. It has most definitely made me a fan of her work. She continues to put out music, most recently releasing her sixth album They’re Calling Me Home with Francesco Turrisi this year. She has also worked with numerous other artists, most notably along side Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell in the group Our Native Daughters. I highly suggest you give her other work a listen as well as the Carolina Chocolate Drops records. My favorite tracks on the EP:
- “Moonshiners Daughter”
- “Underneath the Harlem Moon”
- “Factory Girl”
My overall rating: 10 out of 10 Moonshine Runs…
