Rhiannon Giddens

I'm so interested in the feminism of women in American music. These ladies, going out on the road, way before the opportunities and advantages that I have - it was absolutely rough out there. The fact that they were still able to get their art out there and do what they're doing is really impressive to me.

I'm not good at planning ahead because it's just too much. I plan, set it up and then don't think about it again until it's almost time. That's just how it goes.

I'm really taken with 'Calling Me Home' by Alice Gerrard.

People who put Europe in the center of the universe, they're very fragile.

For me the bare feet are grounding. I'm connected to the Earth in a way that I cannot be any other way.

I've been getting interested in reimagining folk songs and writing songs that should have existed but didn't, particularly around the Civil War when black voices were muted and only allowed particular channels.

Black women have historically had the most to lose and have therefore been the fiercest fighters for justice.

When you sit at the feet of an elder, it changes you.

The question is not how do we get diversity into bluegrass, but how do we get diversity back into bluegrass?

I don't have a genre because I play lots of different music that people would say are different genres.

I think songs can have different lives.

If I wasn't touring, I wasn't making money. When I got the MacArthur, I could get off that hamster wheel. It meant I didn't have to do anything.