Black Women Finally Getting Country Music Recognition
By Ron Wynn
NASHVILLE, TN — Black artists have always been active and vital in country music circles, despite a long-running mythology that only whites have written and performed it. The prevailing line peddled for decades was that until Charley Pride came along and Ray
Charles did a couple of albums, Blacks, with the notable exception of harmonica ace/vocalist Deford Bailey, had largely ignored country music.
That notion was widely believed despite the fact Black string bands, songwriters, and vocalists had been influencing and having a huge impact on country music from its earliest days right up to the present. Likewise, the banjo and fiddle, two prominent instruments in country music’s sound and style, both have extensive Black connections. The former has African origins, and the latter was widely used by slaves.
While such key volumes as Bill Malone’s “Country Music USA” (recently re-released in an updated new volume) documented such facts as Hank Williams Sr. learning to play guitar from Rufus “Tee Tot” Payne, a Black musician, and The Carter Family getting guitar riffs from Lesley Riddle, another Black artist, the mainstream country audience and fan base largely remained ignorant of the huge Black impact on the music they loved.
Fortunately, that inaccuracy has been corrected the past few years in many circles, most recently the Ken Burns “Country” documentary film series and companion volume that chronicled the exploits of multiple Black artists. Such artists as Darius
Rucker, Jimmie Allen and Kane Brown have had radio hits, with Rucker enjoying a string of number ones, and Allen and Brown scoring major successes.
An equally welcome trend has been an explosion of interest and exposure for Black women country artists, who’ve historically been even more ignored than Black men. But despite facing the double obstacles of racism and sexism (country radio’s reluctance to feature more than a tiny specter of white women artists has been a long-running subject of criticism), these women continue to persevere and continue the fight to make the music they feel and enjoy without concerns over whether they are “authentic” or “country enough.”
As the nation celebrates Women’s History Month, Sunday night could see a Black woman achieve something that’s never been done
before in country music circles: win a Grammy as a solo artist. Texas vocalist Mickey Guyton is nominated for best solo country performance. Her song “Black Like Me” is not only the first single by a Black woman artist to get an individual nomination, but it could also stand as a signature tune for country’s Black women dating back decades. Guyton is just one among several Black women who are now finally getting their well deserved time in the spotlight.
Though they no longer reside in Nashville, two women well known in Music City for their vocal
excellence and long battles to achieve fair treatment in the country industry are Rissi Palmer and Miko Marks. Palmer hosts an acclaimed radio show on Apple Music’s country station “Color Me Country.” This program covers the history of Black, Latino and Indigenous country artists. She took the show name from the title of an album by another Black woman country pioneer Linda Martell, who was recently profiled in Rolling Stone after decades of exclusion and mistreatment by the country industry.
Marks, now residing on the West Coast, had her fill of Music City politics years ago, but is returning to the recording world this year with the LP “Our Country.” During a Black History Month roundtable interview with other Black women country artists featured in the New York Times she illuminated both her struggles and those of Black women country performers in general.
“I met with a label in Nashville, and they basically told me the music’s great, you’re just phenomenal, but you’re not going to sell,” Marks told the Times. “I just didn’t get that. And then I got it as I matured and grew. I wasn’t going to get it because I was Black.” She added that during a concert at a crowded Louisiana bar in 2006, she got menacing glares from audience members as she made her way to the bathroom. Marks remembers that walk clearly and how she hoped “I got to come back out of that bathroom.”
On the other hand, there’s the hope things will be different for newer Black women country artists like Reyna Roberts and Brittney Spencer. Both have always been interested in country, and have recently done acclaimed singles that are getting them lots of industry buzz and exposure. In addition to participating in the New York Times piece, Roberts, whose current single is “Stompin’ Grounds,” has been featured in Billboard and The Tennessee Star. She hasn’t hesitated to address the issue of race and country.
“Just because I don’t see a lot of people [in country music] who look like me, it doesn’t mean I can’t do it myself,” She told the Star. “And I don’t just mean because I am a black woman, but my hair is red and I don’t always dress in blue jeans and have the specific kind of [country] look. It’s not going to keep me from doing what I love.”
Spencer’s cover of the Highwomen song “Crowded Table” led to a writing session with the group’s Maren Morris and Amanda Shires. Both Spencer and Roberts have also been named members of the 2021 class of CMT’s “Next Women of Country.”). The group of Black women country performers continues to get more crowded with artists unafraid of expressing their love of the idiom, and their ability to sing it with pride and flair.
Another emerging star included in CMT’s “Next Women of Country” 2021 class is Tiera. She’s emblematic of how different things are in today’s music scene in that her career has been greatly aided by streaming/online services like YouTube, Instagram and Spotify. These helped get her in touch with industry types who have subsequently tapped her for stardom.
Tiera plans to release three singles throughout the year. Her most recent one is “Found It in You,” with the female-focused publishing company Songs & Daughters, which she signed with last June.She’s also hosting a show for Apple Music’s Country radio station. “It just makes me so happy,” Tiera said in a recent release from Apple. “For a long time, people thought that we weren’t out here, you know — like there weren’t Black people in country music that wanted to do this. But there are so many of us.”
“I used to get messages from other Black females along the lines of ‘I want to do country music, but I’m scared to move to Nashville. Can you give me some advice?’” Tiera said. “Over the past few months, those messages have shifted to ‘I want to do country music. I just moved to Nashville. Do you have any advice?’ It warms my heart just seeing them make that step.”
The great Rhiannon Giddens is a celebrated artist equally comfortable with vintage or contemporary country. Giddens was very involved with the recent Burns “Country” series, where she discussed country’s Black origins. She’s a past MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient, and a six-time Grammy nominee. Giddens initially came to fame with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a group she co-founded. Her forthcoming album, “They’re Calling Me Home,” a collaboration with Francesco Turrisi, will be released in April.
She has performed for the Obamas at the White House, and acted in two seasons of the hit television series “Nashville”. She has been profiled by CBS Sunday Morning, the New York Times, and NPR’s Fresh Air, among other outlets. Giddens is also a member of the band Our Native Daughters with three other black female banjo players – and produced their album “Songs of Our Native Daughters” (2019), which tells stories of historic black womanhood and survival. Giddens’ stated mission is to lift up people of color whose contributions to American musical history have previously been erased, and to work toward a more accurate understanding of the country’s musical origins.
Memphis-based Valerie June merges a host of idioms into her sound, though it maintains a strong country base. A gifted multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, banjo and lap-steel, she started gaining notoriety after recording the EP “Valerie June and the Tennessee Express” in collaboration with Nashville’s Old Crow Medicine Show in 2010.
Since that tine she’s performed with everyone from Meshell Ndegeocello and John Forte to Booker T. Jones, while continuing to write and perform highly distinctive, striking original material. Her latest release “The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers” will include a guest performance from Memphis music legend Carla Thomas and is due to be released this week.
Sadly, one of country’s real innovators is no longer working in the industry. Linda Martell was the first Black woman to play the Grand Ole Opry, and appeared there 12 times. She was discovered singing country music on an air force base. This led to an introduction to Shelby Singleton, who signed her to his Nashville label (unfortunately named Plantation Records) in 1969.
Later that year the label released her country cover of “Color Him Father.” The song became a charting single on the Billboard charts and her debut album followed in 1970. But as has been detailed in recent, extensive articles in Rolling Stone and elsewhere, the racism proved too much for Martell to combat, as well as inconsistent, erratic promotion from the label, resistance to her records on country radio, etc. She retired from the industry in 1974 and currently resides in South Carolina. But she’s an inspiration to many Black women country artists, who often cite her.
Another name that should never be forgotten or overlooked, especially locally, is Frankie Staton. For several years she was the force behind The Black Country Music Association, as well as being an excellent pianist and vocalist. Staton was good enough to be among the featured musicians on “The Ralph Emery Show,” and long before the history of Blacks in country became a prominent topic Staton could offer plenty of information and detail on that subject.
“I thought that there were a whole lot of African Americans that liked country music but didn’t feel welcome in it because they didn’t see a reflection of themselves,” she explained during a profile story featured during this year’s Black History Month spotlight on WSMV-4.
“I decided to challenge the story and have the first Black Country Music Showcase at the Bluebird Cafe,” she said. “You can’t fathom Black hillbillies? Okay, I’ll show ya! They were like, ‘who are these people? Are they Black?’ I’m, like, ‘yes!’ Some people would say, ‘I’m glad to see you guys! Where you been?’ I’m like, ‘trying to get in here.’”
Growing to more than 80 members, Staton wanted her artists on the radio, on records. “There were representatives at my showcases,” she said. “They felt their market was not in the Black community. It was just a closed industry. They didn’t see where we could benefit them. They just didn’t see it.”
Sadly, after being formed in 1997 and continuing for years, the Black Country Music Association ended. We went as far as we could go,” Staton said. But she’s still playing area dates and is also pleased whenever she sees a Black artist with a record on the country charts.
While history might be made Sunday, past exploits also shouldn’t be forgotten. The first (and thus far only) Black women to win a country Grammy were the Pointer Sisters in 1974. Their song “Fairytale,” co-written by Anita and Bonnie Pointer, was based off personal experience. But Bonnie Pointer wanted it made clear they weren’t trying to do anything odd or unusual with that song.
“People think because we’re always trying something different we’re not sincere,” Bonnie Pointer told the Youngstown Vindicator in an Oct. 30, 1974 article. “Like country music. For us, it’s no joke…Our folks came from Arkansas and we grew up singing country songs. It’s part of us.”
That’s true for all these women, and for many others who came before and will follow them in the future.
Legacy of Ancestors Inspire Young Black Artist
By Monique Gooch
NASHVILLE, TN — When artist Ashley Seay wanted to pay homage to one of her ancestors, she turned to the woman considered the
mother of the Civil Rights movement, Rosa Parks.
The piece entitled, “Rebel Rosa” was printed in 2018. Seay actually printed the wood block painting at her apartment. “I think I had about $50 and I went to Wal-Mart and bought a pack of wooden spoons, and vegetable oil. I went to a local art store and bought ink and two sheets of paper.”
Once Seay had all of her supplies, she called her former MTSU Professor, Megan O’Connor, for guidance. “She told me she was proud of me and she told me what I could use that was economically safe to print this in my small apartment.”
Seay got into wood blocking while she was attending MTSU. She took Professor O’Connor’s class and fell in love with it. “She is who I call when I don’t know what to do.”
The woodcut painting has been on display at Woodcuts Framing and Gallery on Jefferson street, which features several new and upcoming Black artists. Seay, born and raised in Lebanon, now lives in Nashville and is a receptionist at the gallery.
Seay said her art is a representation of her and her up bringing, “My art is also a representation of my connection with nature, the
universe and my ancestors. I feel it is important to pay homage to your ancestors and your family. I try to pay love to my people.”
She also said that she was once told by someone that she should be more inclusive with her artwork. But she refuses to do so. “To change that would be to change myself.”
When asked what brought on the “Rebel Rosa” piece Seay said that she was working in partnership with another artist, Corey White. “He has a paint and wine business and he would have people come in and show their work while customers were eating and drinking wine. He brought me on as a featured artist.”
Corey White had a picture of Rosa Parks he wanted to put on a T-shirt and collaborated with Seay, however, the T-shirt project never came to fruition, so Seay continued the project on her own.
Seay is currently working with the Frist Art Museum. “I feel very honored to say that I have a connection with the museum. It all happened through Instagram.”
Shaun Giles, Community Engagement Director messaged Seay and asked if she wanted to be a part of the Albrecht Durer block printer exhibit.
“The Frist wanted to reach out to local artist to see if anyone wanted to do a live demo. No one really knows what a live demo is. It looks like digital print, but it’s not.” After Seay was featured, she was then invited back to teach two workshops, which she gladly accepted.
Seay is also on the Board of the Tennessee Arts Commission. “I believe art is the expression of your soul. So, my art is me. It’s me just expressing myself on paper.”
