Here’s my recipe for a delicious summer evening: Take a warm summer night, add a lush garden, and stir in the sounds of a string band dancing through the mountain air. Then grab your fancy picnic baskets and head to Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, for a spectacular evening of front-porch rockin’ music from Rhiannon Giddens & The Old-Time Revue.
Collaborating with The Old-Time Revue marks Giddens’ much-anticipated return to her North Carolina roots and the old-time music tradition that launched her career. A 2x GRAMMY winner, Giddens also received the Pulitzer Prize in music for her opera “Omar,” and a MacArthur “genius” award for reclaiming African American contributions to folk and country music and weaving together music from the past and present. She is also a virtuosic multi-instrumentalist with a classically trained soprano voice.
Giddens and The Old-Time Revue represent a remarkable collaboration with talent from diverse American musical traditions. Joining Giddens on stage will be her old Carolina Chocolate Drop collaborator, Justin Robinson, and the celebrated multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell, longtime bassist Jason Sypher, guitarist Amelia Powell, and bones player and rapper Demeanor.
What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crows, her new album recorded with Robinson, is a fiddle-and-banjo celebration of the wonderful complexity of American Roots music. The record features a mix of North Carolinian instrumentals and traditional songs, many learned from her late mentor, the legendary North Carolina Piedmont musician Joe Thompson. Thompson was one of the last musicians from his community to carry on the southern Black string band tradition. Rhiannon Giddens & The Old-Time Revue pay homage to that legacy and shepherd it into a new era.
Blending many of the tributaries of Americana, including blues, folk, country, Cajun, hip-hop, and African styles, Giddens and company breathe life into old-time roots music, keeping it alive and relevant in the 21st century.
Click HERE for a video of Paul Simon and Rhiannon Giddens singing “American Tune.”
Opening is Sunny War (a.k.a. Sydney Ward), a fresh voice for these complicated times. She mixes the poetry of folk with the angry defiance of punk and the hard realities of blues to create a rootsy pop sound that’s whimsically sharp.
Click HERE for a fun video of Sunny War’s “Walking Contradiction.”
- Who: Rhiannon Giddens &The Old-Time Revue w/ Sunny War
- What: Red Butte Garden Outdoor Concert Series
- Where: Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre
- When: Wednesday, July 16, 2025
- Info and tickets: redbuttegarden.org
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