American Railroad Silkroad Ensemble & Rhiannon Giddens

• 1 Invocation 00:36
• 2 Swannanoa Tunnel / Steel-Driving Man 04:17
• 3 Rainy Day 06:48
• 4 Far Down Far 06:52
• 5 Tamping Song 08:15
• 6 Rela 02:18
• 7 Wíhaŋblapi Mázačhaŋku 03:11
• 8 Have You Seen My Man? 06:00
• 9 Swannanoa Strings 02:33
• 10 Milimo 06:23
• 11 Fukagu Sanjurokkei 04:00
• 12 Mahk Jchi 06:00
• 13 O Shout! 07:25
• Total Runtime 01:04:38

Info for American Railroad

"American Railroad" a new album from The Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens, will be released November 15 on Nonesuch Records. The album is the culmination of four years of research, collaboration, and music-making, having brought Silkroadartists all across the United States to uncover and uplift the stories of those who built the transcontinental railroad and connecting railways across North America.“We shed light on those who have been erased or overlooked throughout American history and merge with it Silkroad's unique ability to amplify voices from a multitude of backgrounds and cultures," Giddens says. "The result is a tapestry of stories, traditions, and musics that have shaped our multifaceted cultural identity, and that must be heard and recognized. I hope audiences will leave with a clearer sense of where we come from, how we got here, what it cost us—and that we collectively reflect on where we're headed."

After the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, a trip from coast to coast that used to take months was shortened to just under a week, allowing for the transport of goods and ideas across the continent in ways previously inconceivable. Profit-seeking corporations and the American government financed it, but the people who actually built it and who were most affected by it are the focus of this program of music—Indigenous and African Americans as well Irish, Chinese, Japanese, and other immigrant laborers whose contributions have been largely erased from history. Silkroad’s American Railroad seeks to right these past wrongs by highlighting untold stories and amplifying unheard voices from these communities, painting a more accurate picture of the global diasporic origin of the American Empire.

The project—years in the making—represents Silkroad Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens’s vision for the Silkroad Ensemble, having first raised the idea early in her tenure. American Railroad will include multidisciplinary components ranging from tours across North America and site-specific visual installations to a video documentary series, recording releases, and curricular materials for use by educators and the public.

"The American Railroad project has been years in the making, and the program we've created for the tour is only the beginning. In it, we shed light on those who have been erased or overlooked throughout American history and merge with it Silkroad's unique ability to amplify voices from a multitude of backgrounds and cultures. The result is a tapestry of stories, traditions, and musics that have shaped our multifaceted cultural identity, and that must be heard and recognized. I hope audiences will leave these performances with a clearer sense of where we come from, how we got here, what it cost us - and that we collectively reflect on where we're headed." - Rhiannon Giddens

Rhiannon Giddens, Shawn Conley, Pura Fé Crescioni, Haruka Fujii, Sandeep Das, Karen Ouzounian, Mazz Swift, Niwel Tsumbu, Francesco Turrisi, Kaoru Watanabe, Michi Wiancko, Wu Man, Yazhi Guo,
American Railroad was recorded live at Green Music Center in Sonoma, CA and Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, CA on November 17 and 18, 2023
Rhiannon Giddens, Kaoru Watanabe, and Jody Elff are co-producers
Jody Elff is the recording and mixing engineer

Please Note: We offer this album in its native sampling rate of 48 kHz, 24-bit. The provided 96 kHz version was up-sampled and offers no audible value!

Silkroad Ensemble
Yo-Yo Ma conceived Silkroad in 1998, recognizing the historical Silk Road as a model for cultural collaboration — for the exchange of ideas, tradition, and innovation across borders. In a groundbreaking experiment, he brought together musicians from the lands of the Silk Road to co-create a musical language founded in difference, thus creating the foundation of Silkroad: both a touring ensemble comprised of world-class musicians from all over the globe and a Boston-based non-profit organization working to make a positive impact across borders through the arts.

Today, under the leadership of Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens and Executive Director Ben Hartley, Silkroad leads social impact initiatives and educational programming alongside the creation of new music by the Grammy Award-winning Silkroad Ensemble.

Rhiannon Giddens
has made a singular, iconic career out of stretching her brand of folk music, with its miles-deep historical roots and contemporary sensibilities, into just about every field imaginable. A two-time Grammy Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winner, MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient, singer and instrumentalist, and composer of opera, ballet, and film, Giddens has centered her work around the mission of lifting up people whose contributions to American musical history have previously been overlooked or erased, and advocating for a more accurate understanding of the country’s musical origins through art.

As Pitchfork once said, “few artists are so fearless and so ravenous in their exploration” — a journey that has led to NPR naming her one of its 25 Most Influential Women Musicians of the 21st Century and to American Songwriter calling her “one of the most important musical minds currently walking the planet.”

This album contains no booklet.