Rhiannon Giddens: Hope Is The Thing With Feathers (LP)

The album *Hope is the Thing with Feathers*, set for release in 2026 by Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning artist Rhiannon Giddens, was inspired by the beauty of people coming together to give each other strength. It was deliberately recorded live—without frills and with only a few overdubs—to create pure and authentic music that captures the sense of community, clarity, and the joy and power of collaborative creation. From exploring the traditions that shape American music to the collaborative spirit in which the album was conceived and recorded—in many ways, the album tells the story of the last 20 years of Giddens’ life. “Hope is the Thing with Feathers” features Giddens’ most important collaborators from throughout her career. Alongside Giddens (lead vocals, minstrel banjo, violin) are longtime bassist Jason Sypher, Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, Congolese artist Niwel Tsumbu (guitars), and Louisiana native Dirk Powell on various instruments, as well as her very first bandmate and fellow North Carolinian, Justin Robinson, her nephew Justin Harrington, Dirk’s daughter Amelia Powell, Charly Lowry, and Giddens’ sister Lalenja Harrington. Giddens says: “Louisiana, the Congo, Italy, the Carolinas—all these influences and people come together to create something: that is American music. That’s how American music came to be, and that was the original idea—to form a band with the musicians I’ve been playing with for years and who can be heard on this album.”