Our (Brilliant) Native Daughters: Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell (Part 1)

My musical tastes run the gamut, from R&B to Broadway show tunes. That is, until I discovered banjo playing artists/collaborators--Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell listed on the Smithsonian’s American Women’s History Museum website among “Twelve Black Women You Should Know.”

I immediately sought out their album, Songs of Our Native Daughters (Smithsonian Folkways label, 2019), a rich collection of 13 folk and root songs inspired by slave narratives (“I Knew I Could Fly”), poems by Lucille Clifton and Paul Laurence Dunbar (“Quasheba, Quasheba”), and the transatlantic slave trade (“Barbados”).

Each song pays homage the resilience of generations of Black/African women who endured a trifecta of indignities: enslavement, sexism, and racism.

Album producer Rhiannon Giddens says she drew inspiration from several sources, including a visit to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture as well as Nate Parker’s Birth of a Nation. “We kept thinking of our foremothers, and our kids, and seeing that line of strength and resilience in those songs.”

A Smithsonian Channel documentary, Reclaiming History: Our Native Daughters, chronicles the vision and story behind the Banjo Supergroup’s formation.

The quartet’s collaborative genius shines through each thrum of banjo strings, harkening us back to the roots and folk music of our forebears, at times poignant, radical, even sardonic.

The spirited bluegrass rendition of “Polly Ann’s Hammer” tells of a Black woman working in the California mines during the 1840s Gold Rush, and who could strike a hammer, “Harder than any man can.”

Amythyst Kiah’s funky, bluesy vocals on “Black Myself” capture the poignancy of invisibility: “Your precious God ain’t gonna bless me, ‘Cause I’m black myself … You look in my eyes but you don’t see me, ‘Cause I’m black myself.”

“I Knew I Could Fly” is a lilting ditty about hope and endurance, “I didn’t know why, I knew I could fly. I knew I could fly.”

Each member’s story—ranging from childhood abuse to the suicide of a parent--creates a rich tapestry of experience which animates their songs. Nonetheless, they share a passion for social change, personal empowerment, and racial justice.

In a 2019 interview for The Chautauquan Daily, Kiah said, “We have a hard time talking about racial issues because people either get so upset they don’t want to talk about it, or people get defensive, … So, through our music we’re hoping the conversation can be had, because … that’s going to be the only way to move forward.”

Wista JohnsonAugust 9, 2024