The Soul of Music: Rhiannon Giddens excavates the past

This episode is part one of The Soul of Music—Overheard’s four-part series focusing on music, exploration, and Black history. Our guest this week is two-time Grammy award winner Rhiannon Giddens, a singer, songwriter, and banjo and fiddle player. A self-described “armchair historian,” Rhiannon chats with Nat Geo Explorer and spoken-word poet Alyea Pierce about the origins of the banjo, her new opera Omar, and how she finds inspiration through history.

For more information on this episode, visit natgeo.com/overheard (nationalgeographic.com/podcasts/overheard).
Want more?
Learn more about Rhiannon and her music, opera, and children’s book at her website, rhiannongiddens.com?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=podcasts…. And you can follow her on Twitter @RhiannonGiddens (twitter.com/RhiannonGiddens?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=…).
You can follow National Geographic Explorer Alyea Pierce at her instagram @alyeaspierce (instagram.com/alyeaspierce/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=…).
Also explore:
Listen to the National Geographic podcast Into the Depths (nationalgeographic.com/podcasts/into-the-depth…) to hear more of Alyea’s poetry and follow Explorer Tara Roberts on a journey to document sunken slave ships in the Atlantic.
Learn about how music is used to heal the sick in Appalachia in this Nat Geo article (nationalgeographic.com/history/article/in-appa…).
If you like what you hear and want to support more content like this, please consider a National Geographic subscription. Go to natgeo.com/exploremore to subscribe today.

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