Spoiler alert: Rhiannon has nothing to do with Rihanna. Ok, they both like to sing r’n’b but that is where all similarities between schooled singer and mainstream pop star are ending. In the title song of her debut album Tomorrow Is My Turn, Rhiannon has demonstrated more emotions that some mainstream pop stars are not able to do after ten years of their career. This is just the beginning of the great story.
The main concept of the album is relatively clumsy. Persuaded by her producer T-Bone Burnett, Rhiannon has decided to cover blues standards that are somehow related to women performers, such as Odetta (Water Boy), Jean Ritchie (O Love Is Teasin), Dolly Parton (Don’t Let It Trouble Your Mind), Elizabeth Cotton (Shake Sugaree), Patsy Cline (She’s Got You). Closing track Angel City is Giddens’ work and it doesn’t stand out from the rest of the album.
The result is fantastic. Rhiannon is stealing the show. Such a mastery in the vocal is rarely to be heard and prosaic Burnett production allows her voice to be divine. Rhiannon does not have instincts like the old school blues singers. You can not feel her life struggle. She is not an actress-singer in a way that she takes the character of the main protagonist of the song. Still, in her interpretation, she pours her heart, she understand music and as a listener, you hear how she respects the songs that she is singing.
Besides title track, Rhiannon shines more than usual on a track called Black Is The Color. Tomorrow Is My Turn is a very dear album for anyone who adores blues and who would love to hear how does it sound when woman respects someone else’s music.
