Rhiannon Giddens is as much scholar as musician. Now, she’s showing her saucy side in a new album

By DAVID BAUDER
AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Rhiannon Giddens is as much a scholar as a musician. Along with her two Grammy Awards, she’s been the recipient of a MacArthur “genius grant” for her work showing the influence of Black musicians on the history of art forms like folk and country. She also won a Pulitzer Prize this year for co-writing an opera that addresses slavery. Yet the Giddens is now is showing a different side — even a saucy side — with an accessible new album with roots in all types of American music: rock, soul and Cajun along with folk and country. “You’re the One” is out Friday.