Rhiannon Giddens
Album: Tomorrow Is My Turn
Label: Nonesuch
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.rhiannongiddens.com

Rhiannon's talent and showmanship and sheer presence - and not least her astounding voice - were qualities first spotted for many when she co-founded the wonderful Afro-American string band outfit Carolina Chocolate Drops not so many years ago, and more recently on the Lost On The River - The New Basement Tapes collection. Producer T Bone Burnett was reported to be so impressed with the bursting-out magnificence of Rhiannon's roof-raising, ovation-inducing performance when he took charge of the Inside Llewyn Davis spinoff concert that he offered then and there to produce a solo album for her - and this stunning record is the result.

Forget tomorrow - today's her turn, I say. By which I mean don't put off listening to this album till tomorrow! Rhiannon proves herself a star on this selection of songs which, she candidly admits, just wouldn't have fitted with her Carolina Chocolate Drops role: songs more commonly associated with specific American female singers. Indeed, Rhiannon might well be thought exceedingly brave to tackle these songs at all given those associations, so her achievement is all the greater for rising so high above the mere tribute-act status and making them so much her own. The songs straddle country (Dolly Parton's Don't Let It Trouble Your Mind), soul ballad (the Hank Cochran number She's Got You made oh-so-famous by Patsy Cline), while the closest Rhiannon comes to traditional folk song is with Elizabeth Cotton's charming, rolling Shake Sugaree, and a beautifully melancholy O Love Is Teasin', the latter originally popularised in the States by Jean Ritchie.

There's an ingenious, and curiously successful, beat-box-driven uptempo treatment of Black Is The Colour, and an aptly brooding version of Round About The Mountain. Also on the subject of uptempo, the gutsy gospel-flavoured rockabilly of Up Above My Head, taken from the inimitable Sister Rosetta Tharpe, sporting some brilliantly fervent vocal and instrumental accompaniment, provides a standout cut, make no mistake, while the title track's archetypal chanson also suits Rhiannon's voice surprisingly well, more especially since it was Nina Simone who had immortalised the song for the world. The "cast of thousands" (OK, some 20-odd folks) assembled by T Bone to back Rhiannon is undoubtedly impressive, and includes Punch Brothers members Gabe Witcher (fiddle) and Paul Kowert (double bass), also Dennis Crouch, Hubby Jenkins, Jay Bellerose, Jack Ashford and Colin Linden.

Rhiannon also gets the chance to demonstrate her own considerable ability as a songwriter on the disc's final track, the plaintive Angel City. OK, maybe the worksong Waterboy is slightly less powerhouse in this studio incarnation than at the ILD live concert, but it's still a very potent reading and it won't disappoint. If this album doesn't advance Rhiannon's profile and elevate her place in the pantheon of distinguished female singers, then I'll be mightily surprised, for it's mightily tasty.

David Kidman