The Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center will present Rhiannon Giddens & The Old-Time Revue on Sunday, May 4, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The 7 p.m. performance will be in the Alys Stephens Center’s Jemison Concert Hall, 1200 10th Ave. South. Tickets are $39, $49, $59 and $79. Purchase tickets at AlysStephens.org, call 205-975-2787, or visit the Alys Stephens Center Box Office at 1200 10th Ave. South, Birmingham. Discounted tickets for UAB students, staff and faculty are available for most performances; supplies are limited.

Giddens has centered her work around the mission of lifting people whose contributions to American musical history have previously been overlooked or erased, and advocating for a more accurate understanding of the country’s musical origins through art. A MacArthur Genius Grant recipient and 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner, Giddens is a two-time Grammy winner, with eight additional nominations for her work as a soloist and collaborator. 

Giddens co-founded the Grammy Award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops in late 2005 along with Justin Robinson. Now Giddens and Robinson are performing together as The Old-Time Revue with multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell, bassist Jason Sypher, guitarist Amelia Powell, and bones player and rapper Demeanor. The band draws on deep wells of expertise ranging from Carolina Piedmont blues and string band tunes to Cajun and creole songs from Louisiana; rollicking fiddle and banjo breakdowns to four-part harmony, old-style country songs; and virtuosic fiddling and picking to heartfelt vocals.

American music publication Pitchfork once said, “Few artists are so fearless and so ravenous in their exploration.” Giddens’ work led NPR to name her one of its 25 Most Influential Women Musicians of the 21st Century. American Songwriter magazine called her “one of the most important musical minds currently walking the planet,” while Smithsonian Magazine said the “electrifying” singer and banjo player “gives fresh voice to old American traditions.”