Rhiannon Giddens

Member of several bands and vocal groups, including Carolina Chocolate Drops (black string band), Eleganza (operatic duets), and Snapdragon (Celtic).

[on studying the minstrelsy genre in 1820s and '30s America] It had such a gargantuan effect on American culture, world culture. This was the first time that tunes were written down. I've been going at it from a musicology point-of-view, rather than looking at its blackface and running screaming from the room.