CAROLINA Chocolate Drops founder Rhiannon Giddens plays Pocklington Arts Centre on Wednesday in the smallest location of her nine-date November tour, and not surprisingly the 8pm show has sold out.

The 40-year-old Greensboro, North Carolina singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist will be showcasing her second solo album, Freedom Highway, which includes nine original songs she wrote or co-wrote while Giddens and her band toured 2015's Tomorrow Is My Turn album. Two civil rights-era songs feature too: Birmingham Sunday and the Staple Singers’ Freedom Highway, from which the album takes its name.

Giddens, past winner of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Singer of the Year, co-produced the record with multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell in his Breaux Bridge, Louisiana studio, with the bulk of recording done in wooden rooms built before the American Civil War.

As producers, Giddens and Powell sought to release the stories already in the walls, allowing the space to be a voice in itself. This approach elicited an emotional fearlessness and presence not always easy to achieve in the studio. Together they assembled the players: Giddens' touring band, local musicians from the bayou, a soulful horn section from New York and talented family members, and together they worked their magic over eight days.