A few months back, the folk musician Rhiannon Giddens announced a new album, You’re The One, right around the same time that she won Pulitzer Prize for music. That album is out in a couple weeks, and it’s Giddens’ first full-length made up entirely of original songs. She’s shared the title track and “You Louisiana Man” from it already, and today she’s back with another single, “Yet To Be,” a collaboration with Jason Isbell. Watch the video below.
“Yet to Be” is about a farm girl who leaves her home “when she was 16”. “With nowhere to go, She knew that she had to leave. She hopped a one-way train With a ticket to ride In the third class back with the others.” She leaves the farm because she wants to have a better life than her mother had. She prays for it, especially since “Today may break your heart But tomorrow holds the key…the best is yet to be”. Despite the sudden change in scenery, the song sounds very optimistic and uplifting.
Cut to a farm boy who also leaves the life of the fields. “He was born on the farm But he didn’t wanna stay…he crept away in the dead of night And got a steamer out of Liverpool”. He too prays for a better life, and he goes so far that he’s “half a world away”. Despite this, “The here and now is better than it was back then”. Once again, Today may break your heart…tomorrow holds the key…the best is yet to be”.
The two find themselves in the city and become a couple. “It was a divine collision of the human heart It was east of her and west of him They were wishing on the same bright star”. After leaving literally everything behind, them getting together works out for them. They even have a child: “the baby was a brand new start”. Cut to the family at their new home, the video fades to black.
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