Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson unveiled “Marching Jaybird,” on March 3, the latest single from from their forthcoming album of North Carolina fiddle and banjo music, “What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow” (out April 18 on Nonesuch Records). The song finds the duo revisiting a recording by influential guitarist and singer Etta Baker, one of their musical heroes and a key inspiration for making this new album. Produced by Giddens and Joseph “joebass” DeJarnette, the new album see’s Giddens and Robinson playing 18 of their favorite North Carolina tunes: a mix of instrumentals and tunes with words. Many were learned from their late mentor, the legendary North Carolina Piedmont musician Joe Thompson, one of the last musicians of his era and his community to carry on the southern Black string band tradition. The two also recorded outdoors at Thompson’s Mebane, N.C., home, as well as the former plantation Mill Prong. They were accompanied by the sounds of nature, including two different broods of cicadas, which had not emerged simultaneously since 1803, creating a true once-in-a-lifetime soundscape.