Live At Newport Folk Festival: Allison Russell

Call & Response

On Saturday at Newport, Allison Russell convened a super group of BIPOC performers to take the stage lead by the legendary Chaka Khan. The very next morning, we recorded this conversation. “It's not going to take anything away from you to let us in,” says Allison. “I wanted everyone to be able to see and hear and feel this majesty, this diversity, these expansive, intensely individual artists.” In this equally expansive conversation, Adia and Allison explore what it means to create collectively, for artists to lift each other up, and what it could look like if the music industry did the same.

/ Show Notes /

Allison’s debut solo record is Outside Child. Allison is also a part of the band Our Native Daughters alongside Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah and Leyla McCalla.

Listen back to Call and Response featuring Brandi Carlile and Rhiannon Giddens, mentioned in this episode.

Allison Russell shouts out the Marigold Foundation and the Looking Out Foundation for supporting the Super Jam she curated. She also cites the work of the Black Vision’s Collective.

/ Credits /

Call & Response is a Sonos show produced by work x work: Scott Newman, Jemma Rose Brown, Adia Victoria, Babette Thomas and Emily Shaw. Our engineers are Sam Bair and Tom Tierney.