Black Banjo Ancestors and Origins
Auspiciously, she brushed up against folk while a student Oberlin. She misread a flyer, accidentally attended a contra dance, and enjoyed the movement and the old time music. Upon returning home to Greensboro, she became more involved in the musical side of things, calling dances and traveling the state to attend contra festivals.
Around the same time, Giddens began to play the banjo, and was particularly drawn to the clawhammer style of strumming. As she began to do research about the instrument, she quickly learned about its African origin, saw the complete whitewashing of banjo music, and realized that she could add to the conversation around the banjo. She researched the Black banjo and other historical Black folk musicians, reading African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia by Cecelia Conway. [5] Her connection with the author led her to the feet of Joe Thompson, a Black musical elder, whose roots traced centuries up a long family lineage of Black string band players. Joe Thompson, of Mebane, North Carolina, lived half an hour from Greensboro, where Giddens was raised. Rhiannon Giddens, along with the other two founders of the 2005 band, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, would visit Joe Thompson and aurally learn string band tunes from him. Giddens had been hoping to play the fiddle or viola with Thompson, but since there was no banjo player in the group, she picked it up, joking that "we ladies" accomodate what needs to be done. [6] The near-familial mentorship with Joe Thompson provided Giddens and the rest of the Chocolate Drops with a strong and deep connection to place and vernacular music history.
As time passed, Giddens' banjo sphere widened. She continued her personal banjo research and became involved with many old-time music communities. In 2006, she attended the Black Banjo Then & Now Gathering, a musical summit organized by Professor Tony Thomas. At the gathering, she connected with Gambian akoting player, Daniel Jatta. She traveled to Mandinari, The Gambia shortly after to study at the Akoting Center. [7] For two weeks, she learned about the akoting, a three stringed, long necked Gambian instrument. The akoting sports a gourd, similarly to the early banjo, and is considered an ancestor of the American banjo. In many ways, she was in her element while learning the akoting: the instrument is played in the same clawhammer style that she plays the banjo, and she had a lot of experience learning aurally through her apprenticeship with Joe Thompson.
[5] Conway, Cecelia. African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia. University of Tennessee Press, 1995.
[6] Sullivan, John J. "Rhiannon Giddens and what Folk Music Means." The New Yorker, May 13, 2019, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/20/rhiannon-giddens-and-what-folk-music-means.
[7] Currin, Grayson H. "History on a String.", Aug 23, 2006, https://indyweek.com/api/content/e65d29d1-0ede-5012-b2f7-6f6e56fe9275/.