There Is No Other

{{Music ratings

|ADM=8.1/10{{cite web|url=http://www.anydecentmusic.com/review/9874/Rhiannon-Giddens-There-Is-No-Other.aspx|title=There Is No Other by Rhiannon Giddens reviews|publisher=AnyDecentMusic?|accessdate=August 9, 2019}}

|MC=86/100{{cite web|url=https://www.metacritic.com/music/there-is-no-other/rhiannon-giddens|title=There is No Other by Rhiannon Giddens Reviews and Tracks|publisher=Metacritic|accessdate=July 6, 2019}}

|rev1=AllMusic

|rev1score={{Rating|4|5}}{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/there-is-no-other-mw0003263763|title=There Is No Other – Rhiannon Giddens|publisher=AllMusic|last=Erlewine|first=Stephen Thomas|author-link=Stephen Thomas Erlewine|accessdate=July 6, 2019}}

|rev2=Evening Standard

|rev2score={{Rating|4|5}}{{cite web|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/stayingin/music/albums-of-the-week-mac-demarco-aa-bondy-and-rosie-lowe-a4139511.html|title=Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi – There Is No Other (Nonesuch Records)|work=Evening Standard|last=Broughton|first=Simon|date=May 10, 2019|accessdate=July 6, 2019}}

|rev3=Financial Times

|rev3score={{Rating|4|5}}{{cite web|url=https://www.ft.com/content/cacde636-6a5e-11e9-80c7-60ee53e6681d|title=Rhiannon Giddens: There is No Other — a dialogue between the Americas and the Mediterranean|work=Financial Times|last=Honigmann|first=David|date=May 3, 2019|accessdate=August 8, 2019|url-access=subscription}}

|rev4=The Guardian

|rev4score={{Rating|5|5}}{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/may/03/rhiannon-giddens-with-francesco-turrisi-folk-nonesuch-african-arabic-italian|title=Rhiannon Giddens With Francesco Turrisi: There Is No Other review – a folk landmark|work=The Guardian|last=Rogers|first=Jude|author-link=Jude Rogers|date=May 3, 2019|accessdate=July 6, 2019}}

|rev5=The Irish Times

|rev5score={{Rating|5|5}}{{cite web|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/rhiannon-giddens-with-francesco-turrisi-there-is-no-other-review-filigree-and-ferocious-in-equal-measure-1.3884973|title=Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi: There Is No Other review – Filigree and ferocious in equal measure|work=The Irish Times|last=Long|first=Siobhan|date=May 9, 2019|accessdate=August 8, 2019}}

|rev6=Mojo

|rev6score={{Rating|4|5}}{{cite journal|title=Rhiannon Giddens: There Is No Other|work=Mojo|last=Simmons|first=Sylvie|author-link=Sylvie Simmons|issue=307|date=June 2019|page=89}}

|rev7=Pitchfork

|rev7score=7.6/10{{cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/rhiannon-giddens-there-is-no-other/|title=Rhiannon Giddens: There Is No Other|work=Pitchfork|last=Sodomsky|first=Sam|date=May 8, 2019|accessdate=July 6, 2019}}

|rev8=Rolling Stone

|rev8score={{Rating|3.5|5}}{{cite web|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/review-rhiannon-giddens-there-is-no-other-829924/|title=Review: Rhiannon Giddens’ Worldly ‘There Is No Other’|work=Rolling Stone|last=Bernstein|first=Jonathan|date=May 3, 2019|accessdate=July 6, 2019}}

|rev9=The Times

|rev9score={{Rating|4|5}}{{cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/article/rhiannon-giddens-there-is-no-other-review-b863zqt5s|title=Rhiannon Giddens: There Is No Other review|work=The Times|last=Hodgkinson|first=Will|author-link=Will Hodgkinson|date=May 3, 2019|access-date=August 8, 2019|url-access=subscription}}

|rev10=Uncut

|rev10score=9/10{{cite journal|url=https://www.uncut.co.uk/reviews/album/rhiannon-giddens-francesco-turrisi-no|title=Rhiannon Giddens With Francesco Turrisi – There Is No Other|work=Uncut|last=Williamson|first=Nigel|date=May 10, 2019|accessdate=August 8, 2019}}

}}

{{Metacritic album prose|There is No Other|universal acclaim|86|8}}

The album, which primarily features Giddens and Turrisi playing together on several instruments, presents a mixture of interpretations to a diverse collection of songs from around the world with two original songs (by Giddens). Since its release, There Is No Other was publicly introduced as an album which is "Tracing the overlooked movement of sounds from Africa and the Arabic world and their influence on European and American music..." and which "...illuminates the universality of music and the commonality of the human experience".see [https://www.nonesuch.com/journal/rhiannon-giddenss-new-album-francesco-turrisi-there-no-other-now-vinyl-2019-09-13 Rhiannon Giddens's New Album with Francesco Turrisi, "there is no Other," Now on Vinyl], published on September 13, 2019 in Nonesuch Records website (retrieved November 2, 2019)

The reviews usually followed these lines of introduction, and mainly praised the unique implementation and the high quality outcome. However, among the writing concerning the album there is an article which stands out for reviewing There Is No Other in a wider musicological context, pointing out its relation to the work of Peter Van der Merwe, especially Van der Merwe's meticulously researched book "Origins of the Popular Style".

The article, written by John Jeremiah Sullivan (as an in-depth examination of the cultural and historical context of Giddens' work as a whole) explains that in his research: "Van der Merwe shows how the “gliding chromaticism” characteristic of the blues spread via Islamic influence into West Africa (in particular the Senegambia region) and, via Spain, into Ireland and the “Celtic fringe.” From those places, these styles and sounds rode farther west, to North America, on slave ships and immigrant ships. In the American South, the Celtic and the African musical traditions met. It was an odd family reunion. Each culture had its own songs, but the idioms understood one another. The result was American music.". Against that background, Sullivan therefore opines that "the album that Giddens and Turrisi have made together functions as a kind of proof of Van der Merwe’s musicological thesis".Noting elsewhere in the article that Giddens is aware of and referred to Van der Merwe’s book during a keynote address she gave on September 2018 at the AmericanaFest conference, in London: "she used it to illustrate her point that the instruments that we typically 'think of in modern music—the guitar, the banjo, bagpipes, violins, the list goes on—have been in constant movement and constant change since the time of the ancient world'."Elaborating, as a further example, the story of how Giddens and Turrisi's version of the ballad “Little Margaret,” came about

"To my ears, the album is the first true Rhiannon Giddens record. Joe Henry produced it, beautifully, by getting as far out of the way as possible. The arrangements are stark. The engineering and the mike placement are direct and intimate. It’s the sonic equivalent of a long still shot in natural light".John Jeremiah Sullivan, [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/20/rhiannon-giddens-and-what-folk-music-means Rhiannon Giddens and what folk music means], an article published on May 20, 2019 in The New Yorker website (retrieved November 2, 2019)

{{Track listing

|headline = There Is No Other track listing

|title1=Ten Thousand Voices

|length1=2:57

|title2=Gonna Write Me a Letter

|length2=4:03

|title3=Wayfaring Stranger

|length3=4:47

|title4=There Is No Other

|length4=2:25

|title5=Trees on the Mountains

|length5=5:15

|title6=Pizzica di San Vito

|length6=2:07

|title7=Brown Baby

|length7=5:07

|title8=Briggs' Forró

|length8=4:03

|title9=Little Margaret

|length9=3:03

|title10=Black Swan

|length10=4:17

|title11=I'm on My Wayco-written by Rhiannon Giddens and Joe Henry. see [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4Xlyi8Is98 the official video of I'm on My Way], as published in the official YouTube channel of Rhiannon Giddens

|length11=2:57

|title12=He Will See You Through

|length12=3:59

}}

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Category:2019 albums

Category:Francesco Turrisi albums

Category:Rhiannon Giddens albums

Category:Nonesuch Records albums

Category:Albums produced by Joe Henry