Silkroad’s newest album, American Railroad, and the ensemble’s upcoming concert, honor the thousands of Chinese immigrants and other workers of color who toiled on the Transcontinental Railroad but whose contributions were omitted from American history because of racism and classism.

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There is an iconic photograph depicting the Golden Spike ceremony that marked the completion of America’s Transcontinental Railroad, a feat of technological progress that some historians regard as comparable to the Apollo 11 moon landing for its impact on society. The photograph shows a crowd of workers and officials from the railroad’s two companies — the Central Pacific from California and the Union Pacific from Nebraska — gathered to witness the laying of the railroad’s final spike in Promontory Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869. 

One might reasonably judge from the photograph that both companies consisted entirely of white workers. That was by design. Many thousands of Chinese, Japanese, African American and Irish workers (the latter then not recognized as white) were ignored This was no mere oversight: Of the 15,000 workers employed by the Central Pacific, more than 13,000 were Chinese immigrants.

Silkroad, the multicultural music ensemble and arts collective founded in 1998 by Yo-Yo Ma and now helmed by the Grammy- and Pulitzer-winning musical artist Rhiannon Giddens, comes to Emory’s Schwartz Center for Performing Arts on November 16 to play excerpts from their new album, American Railroad, a concept album exploring the building of the Transcontinental Railroad as an intersection of technological progress, racism and classism. 

“We’re acknowledging that huge things don’t happen by themselves,” explains Silkroad harpist Maeve Gilchrist. “For every major feat of infrastructure or engineering or scientific global progress, there is an army of folk involved with these decisions and often impacted by their existence.”

Gilchrist points out that the music of the project makes the lives of these peoples real for listeners. “By not having accounts of their work and their involvement and their day-to-day, we’re continuing to silence their voices. For each story told and each note played, we’re hoping to pave a way forward.” 

American Railroad honors these stories with the worldbeat instrumentation of Silkroad embracing the Americana folk stylings of the time period. The result is a haunting and contemplative sonic world that evokes images of weary workers trudging through a world of backbreaking toil toward a goal that always feels just over the horizon. But those somber strains are blended with instruments that add to the sonic atmosphere — wind instruments become train whistles and intricate hand percussion recreates the rhythmic cadences of train machinery.

“There’s the literal sounds of the trains,” explains Alicia Reese, Silkroad’s director of strategic partnerships & impact. “There’s the sounds of the workers on the trains. But there’s also the communities and the traditional tunes that they would have brought from the regions they came from.”

Such an undertaking involved a tremendous amount of research on the part of Silkroad. “We realized very early on that none of us are experts on railroads,” laughs Reese. With that in mind, the members of Silkroad began learning about the history of railroad development, the impact on displaced communities and the technological intricacies of railroads themselves.

Their education was a multiphase process that began by meeting with historical scholars and researching the sociological impact of railroad expansion both on laborers and displaced communities. The second phase involved bringing Silkroad musicians to research sites such as museums to begin translating the information to music. The result was a series of experimental trio performances in locations that included the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento and Shiloh Museum of Ozark History in Springdale, Arkansas.

For Gilchrist, the process of sonically adapting instruments from a wide array of traditional backgrounds for a new purpose was a natural outgrowth of her own musical development. “Things die when they don’t evolve,” she remarks, explaining that the ethos is shared by her Silkroad colleagues. “I hope we are making clear to our listeners that we are representing our respective traditions, but we are also all evolving beings.”

As much as American Railroad reflects on an important part of U.S. history, it also echoes contemporary issues, especially in an election year consumed by discussions of immigration, deportation and border security. 

Gilchrist hopes the album can remind people of their shared humanity. “This country simply wouldn’t work without migrants,” she explains. “In a very small way, this project is trying to highlight the work of similar communities in the past and shine a light on today.”

American Railroad maintains Silkroad’s gentle reminder that in a world fraught with uncertainty, it’s human connection and understanding that gets us back on track.

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Jordan Owen began writing about music professionally at the age of 16 in Oxford, Mississippi. A 2006 graduate of the Berklee College of Music, he is a professional guitarist, bandleader and composer. He is currently the lead guitarist for the jazz group Other Strangers, the power metal band Axis of Empires and the melodic death/thrash metal band Century Spawn.