You may formally colour singer Rhiannon Giddens nation.
On Thursday, Nov. 20, the 48-year-old, two-time Grammy-winning folk-country star revealed each on Instagram and in Individuals journal that she’s illustrating the upcoming youngsters’s e-book “Coloration Me Nation: A Celebration of Black Ladies Who Formed Nation Music,” which spotlights the foundational contributions Black ladies have made to the style.
“Excited to disclose the quilt of Coloration Me Nation: A Celebration of Black Ladies Who Formed Nation Music,” she wrote on Instagram. “I contributed illustrations to this stunning new e-book, that was edited by Kelly McCartney and Rissi Palmer. All proceeds go to the Coloration Me Nation Fund.”
Taking its title from Linda Martell’s groundbreaking 1970 album, “Coloration Me Nation,” serves as a vibrant homage to the Black ladies who helped construct, broaden, and redefine nation music — typically in areas that did not embrace them.
Based on its synopsis, the e-book honors the ladies who “defiantly cherished a style that didn’t all the time love them again,” celebrating artists throughout generations, together with Martell, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Tina Turner, Odetta, and Valerie June. Their profiles had been written by journalists affiliated with the Rainey Day Fund, the group co-founded by editor Kelly McCartney to uplift marginalized voices in roots and nation music.
“Coloration Me Nation challenges stereotypes to encourage younger readers, particularly Black or brown women with a dream, to carry their voices excessive,” the synopsis provides.
Giddens, who first broke via within the late 2000s as a founding member of the Grammy-winning old-time string band The Carolina Chocolate Drops, has lengthy been one of many extra seen Black ladies reclaiming area in people and nation music. Born and raised in North Carolina, and now primarily based between the U.S. and Eire, she has spent her profession mixing custom with storytelling, incomes essential acclaim as each a bandleader and a solo artist.
Simply days earlier than the official announcement, Giddens hinted that she was deep into a significant endeavor. In a separate Instagram put up, she shared that she’d been immersed in an “all-encompassing” venture that has been “essential for me personally quite than my mission.”
“All of us develop, heal and be taught via the making of artwork — as an expert artist I generally get the proper alternative that marries an opportunity for emotional therapeutic to inventive development,” she continued. “A part of my journey has been strolling into the fullness of myself as a lady, notably as I endure menopause and enter Act III of my lady’s timeline, which has been traditionally our strongest. I’ve been a really closed, nerdy woman afraid of my very own energy my complete life, and have used the stage for an outlet, but it surely’s time to completely have interaction with it, not simply on stage, however on daily basis.”
“Coloration Me Nation: A Celebration of Black Ladies Who Formed Nation Music” will probably be launched by Candlewick Studio on Could 5, 2026.
