Rhiannon Giddens Performs The Cherry Tree

Loah (Sallay Garnett) is Irish and Sierra Leonean. She is an actor, singer-songwriter, and instrumentalist—as well as a licensed pharmacist! Host Rhiannon visits with Loah at Connolly's of Leap, a legendary 500-year-old pub in West Cork.

Róisín Elsafty is a native Irish speaker and singer in the sean-nós (“old time”) tradition who comes from a musical family: her mother and sisters are also respected vocalists. But the family’s influences also included Umm Kulthum and the music of Róisín’s father’s Egyptian homeland. Rhiannon visits with Róisín in the Gothic Church at Kylemore Abbey in Connemara.

Native American vocalist and lap steel guitarist Pura Fé has both Tuscarora and Taino blood in her veins and generations of ancestors in her voice. She shares her personal background and musical journey in an episode that culminates in a Silkroad Ensemble performance of her song “Mahk Jchi.”