BRETT J. BONNER “I advise everybody to be a little careful when they go along through there, stay woke, keep their eyes open.” —Lead Belly, 1938. Photo taken in Birmingham, Alabama, August 6, 2014. Woman (false understanding): Oh, not the dude in the cop van in Baltimore got all fucked up! Man: No. Woman: Not the guy shot wearing headphones. Man: No. Woman: Not the lady whose house they busted into and shot when she was on her way to work. Man: I don’t think so . . . Woman: And not the other lady whose house they busted into and shot when she was sleeping. Man (unsure): I don’t think so. Woman: And not the little girl whose house they busted into and shot when she was sleeping. Man: I don’t even know about that one. His former bandmate and current collaborator, Rhiannon Giddens, is a deep roots banjoist and fiddler, and undoubtedly one of the most exciting singer-songwriters to have emerged in recent times. The Oberlin Conservatory graduate and Grammy winner (with the Carolina Chocolate Drops) has been defined as a folk musician, but she far transcends this limited genre delineation. In 2017, she was the recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. While she does not follow nar-row blues confines, she mournfully sings about the slavery experience in her 2017 album Freedom Highway , a lament of outstanding artistry, a dart to the heart that builds upon a slavery sale notice taken from a newspaper in the early to mid-1800s: “For Sale. A remarkable smart healthy Negro Wench, About 22 years of age; used to both house work and farming; and sold for no fault but want of emply [sic]. She has a child about 9 months old, which will be at the purchaser’s option. Aug. 12. Enquire of the Printers.” This heart-wrenching historical advertisement opens the album with At the Purchaser’s Option , and becomes the central theme of a musical drama in which she frames a set of stories that humanize and personalize the physical and emotional suffering from the perspective of the victims. Not only is the baby up for sale as if it was livestock, but Giddens con-fronts the sexual submission many slaves were subjected to: You can take my body You can take my bones You can take my blood But not my soul Her song Julie creates a dialogue between a slave-owning mistress and her female servant as the servant decides to leave when Union troops are marching in. Despite the pleas of her mistress, she decides to leave the only place she has ever known with this mournful memory: Mistress, oh mistress I won’t lie If they find that trunk of gold by your side Mistress, oh mistress That trunk of gold Is what you got when my children you sold Giddens juxtaposes the slavery theme in a leap to modern day racist injustice in Better Get It Right the First Time , a song about a good young black man losing his life in what has become an all-too-familiar scenario of unarmed black youths falling victims to police excess. (Young man was a good man) Did you stand your ground? August 2018 • LIVING BLUES • 15
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