Terrific Short Autobiography
Review of the Audible Original audiobook (July 22, 2021)

"You don't realize how isolating it is to constantly bridge worlds, how lonely you feel on that balancing wire, how cold it is between the frying pan and the fire. Until you meet someone who does it too. And all of a sudden you stop feeling like a freak." - Rhiannon Giddens excerpted from To Balance on Bridges

This was a terrific life and career overview by the multi-talented vocalist and instrumentalist Giddens. It was interspersed with various songs tracking her progression and growth from childhood choral singing, to opera school, to traditional scots & irish folk music, to african american spirituals & string bands up to her current collaborations with partner Francesco Turrisi.

Giddens may be primarily known as a roots music archivist, but the span of her influences is wide-ranging and growing constantly. If you don't previously know her work, you are surely to be become a fan after even a small sampling of her amazing voice and instrumental talents.

Track Listing:
1. Intro - Lights in the Valley (faded out) (Trad. Bluegrass Spiritual)
2. Sometimes I Feel like a Motherless Child (Trad. Spiritual arr. John Daniels Carter)
3. Griogal Cridhe (Scots Gaelic arr. Catherine-Ann Macphee)
4. Pretty Saro (Irish traditional)
5. Lights in the Valley (complete) (Trad. Bluegrass Spiritual)
6. Julie (Rhiannon Giddens - inspired by The Slaves' War: The Civil War in the Words of Former Slaves (2008))
7. At the Purchaser’s Option (Rhiannon Giddens - inspired by The Slaves' War)
8. Instrumental (Rhiannon Giddens/Francesco Turrisi)
9. Trees on the Mountain (Carlisle Floyd (from the opera Susannah) arr. Giddens/Turrisi)

Trivia and Links
Read and listen to an excerpt from To Balance on Bridges at The Boot, July 22, 2021.

Rhiannon Giddens also keeps in touch with her opera roots by hosting WNYC's Aria Code. A recent show can be heard here at Only the Good Die Young: Verdi's La Traviata, Aria Code, July 21, 2021. ( )