#demeanor

[dua-source]

DUA LIPA in the music video for 'Demeanor'

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson - “Molly Put the Kettle On”

When the only complaint about a song is it could be longer, the complaint is more of a backhanded compliment.

So it goes with “Molly Put the Kettle On,” the 83-second, banjo-and-fiddle stomper from former Carolina Chocolate Drops Rhiannon Giddens (playing the former) and Justin Robinson (the latter) with some raucous clackety-clacking from Demeanor on rhythm bones.

The track follows “Country Waltz” as the second of four consecutive releases leading up to the April 18 arrival of What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow: Fiddle and Banjo Music of North Carolina. Following seven advance singles, release day will still sport 11 unheard cuts and the previews - Sound Bites’ previous reviews here - suggest a boisterous celebration is in store.

So, “Kettle” is too short. So what?

Grade card: Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson - “Molly Put the Kettle On” - A-

4/15/25

[lunaylaestrallas]

I can’t wait to be soft. In every way possible.

[tenth-sentence]

I had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers of reasoning, and extraordinary energy in action, that I felt that he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had been called upon to fathom.

"The Illustrated Sherlock Holmes Treasury" - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

[faggotfungus]

Really need to work on saying, "You're welcome" more instead of exclusively, "No problem" when at times it is, in fact, an effort and even sometimes a problem.

[total-toral]

I still have no idea about 'how to behave properly on tumblr' or something like that.

[rondacker5431]

[noivernaaa]

People like me for my cool hair and frightening demeanor

[dua-source]

DUA LIPA in the music video for 'Demeanor'

[krispyweiss]

Rhiannon Giddens & the Old-Time Revue at Memorial Hall OTR; Cincinnati, Ohio; May 8, 2025

The audience’s mid-song eruption during “Old Corn Liquor” was so rapturous, Rhiannon Giddens - for the first time in her career - broke the fifth string on her banjo and was temporarily frozen as the song ended.

“You all are bringing it,” she said. “I was having fun.”

The moment came 50 minutes into Giddens & the Old-Time Revue’s May 8 show at a sold-out Memorial Hall OTR in Cincinnati. It featured a partial Carolina Chocolate Drops reunion, as Giddens coaxed band co-founder Justin Robinson - with whom she recently recorded What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow - out of retirement for his first tour in 14 years.

In addition to Giddens (banjo, fiddle, viola) and Robinson (fiddle, banjo), the band included Dirk Powell (acoustic guitar, accordion, banjo, fiddle), Staple Singers T-shirt-sportin’ bassist Jason Sypher, guitarist/percussionist Amelia Powell (Dirk’s daughter) and Giddens’ nephew Demeanor, who rapped, sang and played banjo, electric guitar, rhythm bones and triangle.

For 1.75 hours, the sextet offered songs spanning the 17th to the 21st centuries; from Nigeria to the Congo and from North Carolina to Louisiana and Kentucky. And though Giddens is often known as a purveyor of black string music, Giddens stressed the Revue’s repertoire was music of the oppressed and the poor; it’s class-based and regional, rather than race, music.

With purple dye in her hair and bare feet peeking out from her long black skirt, Giddens exuded joy. She danced. She clapped out beats. And when Giddens wasn’t singing lead in her operatic voice, she ceded the spotlight to Amelia Powell on Merle Haggard’s “Something Between;” Dirk Powell on the traditional “Dimanche Après-Mid” and the original “Red Bird Road;” and Robinson on the Drops’ arrangement of “Georgia Buck” and the Congolese “Pipi Danga.”

Giddens and Dirk Powell began the Revue following a three-song opening set from Demeanor and Amelia Powell that mixed acoustic folk music with piped-in beats and raps. But Demeanor said it was all folk, which he defined as “the music we have to make as a people.”

Aunt Rhiannon and father Dirk responded with Elizabeth Cotten’s “Freight Train,” before slowly bringing the rest the sextet on stage. The result had the audience toggling between loud ecstasy and pin-drop quiet as intricate musicianship and precision harmonies left goosebumps on the concertgoers’ multi-colored skin.

Joy and awe notwithstanding, the Old-Time Revue was serious business, as Giddens pointed out before the full band performed “At the Purchaser’s Option,” an original inspired by a 19th-century newspaper ad for a slave sale.

“It’s is not the evil that was done to you but how you get through the evil that was done to you,” Giddens said. “And that is through all of human history.”

After a raucous standing ovation and group bow, Giddens returned to the stage alone to render “Pretty Saro” a cappella to absolute silence from an audience that had been making big noise moments earlier.

The evening began with music in the lobby, where Jake Speed & The Freddies played bluegrass versions of such tracks as Richard Thompson’s “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” and Hank Williams’ “Jambalaya.”

Grade card: Rhiannon Giddens & the Old-Time Revue at Memorial Hall OTR - 5/8/25 - A+

See more photos on Sound Bites’ Facebook page

5/9/25

[andandalso]

jake blount (feat. demeanor) -- give up the world

[emmahada]

voice so dreamy im couldnt didnt hear and take in comprehend fluently anything you said

[drmelking]

Noah Wyle on Dr. Robby’s breakdown scene with Whitaker

[judahmaccabees]

mean demeaners, demeaning yourselves, stay outta my life

[whats-in-a-sentence]

His failure was reported unkindly:

The Sergeant-at-Arms was sent over, and the demeanour of that gentleman . . . was almost sufficient to guarantee that no further disturbance would occur. But such was not the case; the lion roared and the tiger bellowed, in spite of the authoritative remonstrances of Me. Uhr.

"Killing for Country: A Family History" - David Marr

[scurvyboy]

i've been thinking about that leaked art of college fiddleford and the duality of how people (me) draw him and what he actually probably looked like