The African American Legacy Series continues with the upcoming Songs of Our Native Daughters, out on February 22nd, 2019. Bringing together Rhiannon Giddens (co-founder of Carolina Chocolate Drops), Amythyst Kiah, Allison Russell (Birds of Chicago), and Leyla McCalla, Songs of Our Native Daughters spotlights the often unheard and untold history of their ancestors, whose stories remain vital and alive today. Drawing on and reclaiming early minstrelsy and banjo music, the album’s inspiration comes from New World Slave narratives and other 17th, 18th, and 19th-century sources, weaving them together with their own personal experiences and family histories to create a powerful statement on black womanhood in the United States.

"Gathering a group of fellow black female artists who had and have a lot to say made it both highly collaborative and deeply personal to me," Giddens writes. "It felt like there were things we had been waiting to say our whole lives in our art, and to be able to say them in the presence of our sisters-in-song was sweet indeed. I see this album as a part of a larger movement to reclaim the black female history of this country."

NPR Music debuted a short mini-documentary of the group, collectively called Our Native Daughters, recording the “harrowing” track “Mama’s Cryin’ Long,” – watch the video and listen to the track.

Pre-orders are now available for Songs of Our Native Daughters.