Smithsonian Folkways label is well known for their mission to preserve the different cultures and musical traditions that, over the years, have forged American music and their cultural heritage In their catalog they have lots of specialized field recordings to let people know the origins of Afroamerican music This time they have joined forces with producer Dirk Powell to give us an album that becomes a tribute to those slave women who lived in southern plantations from XVII to the end of XIX century The album originaiity is that it is performed by four very young women whose ancestors were those slave women Banjo, as one of the most traditional instruments of American culture, becomes the common thread of these songs that, not only reflect the humiliations, bad conditions and misery those women suffered but also the male sexism and the many chains that unfortunately are still present nowadays An album with an important social, human and historical content but, at the same time, with a tasteful musical beauty performed by four young women totally committed to feminism The four sing and play the five-string banjo, the minstrel banjo or the guitar and their names are Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla and Allison Russell All songs also include the backing of different instruments like violin, bass, percussion, piano, acoustic guitar, mandolin or vocal harmonies that combine and alternate along the different songs that round up this very special recording