Evaluation: Rhiannon Giddens considers the meaning of household

Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi, “They’re Calling Me Household” (Nonesuch)

Rhiannon Giddens’ new album masterfully mixes the music of Ireland, Italy, Appalachia and heaven.

A yr of demise and lockdown left Giddens contemplating about residence and all the word implies. That inspired “They’re Contacting Me Dwelling,” a 12-tune travelogue that shrinks the planet by covering a lot of ground, with the great over and above often nearby.

Giddens and Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi each stay in Ireland and recorded the album in close proximity to Dublin, which accounts for the set’s Celtic underpinning.

Their reinvention of “Amazing Grace” possesses the light elegance of the Irish countryside, with Giddens’ evocative humming supported by a body drum and uilleann pipes. On the title reduce she’s mournful but hopeful, thinking about transfiguration and accompanied by an accordion’s drone, although the somber ballad “When I Was In My Prime” will encourage yet another round at the pub.

The music hardly ever stays in a person location for prolonged. “Nenna Nenna” is a charming Italian lullaby, and the 1920s fiddle tune “Waterbound” is carried out as a campfire singalong, with stellar support from Congolese guitarist Niwel Tsumbu.

Banjo, viola and whistle even more hook up the musical roots, as does the powerhouse instrument that is Giddens’ voice, her arresting alto vibrato soaring with awesome grace.