"No matter what level privilege you have, when the system is broken everybody loses," Rhiannon Giddens explained in a statement on YouTube. "We all have to speak up when injustice happens. No matter what. And music is one of the best way[s] I know to do so."
Giddens, the explosive voice behind the bluegrass ensemble Carolina Chocolate Drops, recently released a one-take, live video of a new song entitled "Cry No More," a response to the mass shooting that took place in Charleston on June 17, 2015.
The song, featuring Giddens' soaring vocals accompanied by a choir and frame drum, is a piercing gospel anthem for the contemporary age, communicating grief, heartbreak, pain and hope through the power of music.
"The massacre at the AME church in Charleston is just the latest in a string of racially charged events that have broken my heart," she added. "There are a lot of things to fix in this country, but history says if we don't address this canker, centuries in the making, these things will continue to happen."
The video, directed by Harvey K Robinson, was filmed at the United Congregational Church in Greensboro, NC.
See more works of art made in response to the horrific shooting here.
