Our Native Daughters - "I Knew I Could Fly" [Behind The Scenes Documentary]

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Our Native Daughters - "I Knew I Could Fly" [Behind The Scenes Documentary]

In this behind the scenes documentary, Leyla McCalla shares how Piedmont blues guitarist Etta Baker inspired the song "I Knew I Could Fly," a song off 'Songs of Our Native Daughters' released by Smithsonian Folkways on February 22, 2019. "Alli and I co-wrote the lyrics to this song, thinking of discrimination and how it has shaped our American experience; as we were writing the words, we realized that they could equally apply to the life and legacy of Etta Baker. I used to practice guitar to Etta Baker’s album Railroad Bill. Etta was a Piedmont blues guitarist. She gave up much of her public performing after her marriage in 1936 and the subsequent birth of her nine children. She later told the National Endowment for the Arts that her husband didn’t want her “to be gone away from home, but he loved my music.” A few years after her husband’s death in 1967 she began to concentrate more on playing the blues. In 1991, she was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship, the nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts." — Leyla McCalla Director: Charlie Webber Story Producer: Abigail Hendrix 'Songs of Our Native Daughters' available on CD, Vinyl LP, and Digital. Stream/download/purchase: Smithsonian Folkways: https://folkways.si.edu/songs-of-our-native-daughters Bandcamp: https://ournativedaughters.bandcamp.com/album/songs-of-our-native-daughters 'Songs of Our Native Daughters' gathers together kindred musicians Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell in song and sisterhood to communicate with their forebears. Drawing on and reclaiming early minstrelsy and banjo music, these musicians reclaim, recast, and spotlight the often unheard and untold history of their ancestors, whose stories remain vital and alive today. The material on 'Songs of Our Native Daughters' -- written and sung in various combinations -- is inspired by New World slave narratives, discrimination and how it has shaped our American experience, as well as musicians such as Haitian troubadour Althiery Dorval and Mississippi Hill Country string player Sid Hemphill, and more. Our Native Daughters Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ournativedaughters Twitter: https://twitter.com/ondaughters Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ournativedaughters Smithsonian Folkways: https://folkways.si.edu Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/smithsonianfolkwaysrecordings Twitter: https://twitter.com/folkways YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/SmithsonianFolkways Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smithsonianfolkways The content and comments posted here are subject to the Smithsonian Institution copyright and privacy policy (www.si.edu/copyright). Smithsonian reserves the right in its sole discretion to remove any content at any time.

3 min 55 sec

music folk "Woody Guthrie" "Pete Seeger" Smithsonian Folkways old-time non-profit