The Black Women of Nashville Storm the Grammys: How Yola, Allison Russell and Others Are Changing the Face of Roots Music
Yet those performers are really just the tip of the iceberg for a phenomenally talented group of women that includes rawer, roots-based newcomers like Joy Oladokun, Amythyst Kiah and Adia Victoria and mainstream-oriented talents with a more traditional Music Row bent like Rissi Palmer, Reyna Roberts and Brittney Spencer.
Russell is less optimistic about the mainstream country field, “where you look at that top 10 list and it’s all white dudes — and Kane Brown. That’s one aspect, sure. But then there’s also the fact that Music City is Music City because of the Fisk Jubilee Singers,” she notes, referring to the Black ensemble that just happened to win the first Grammy in its 150-year history last year, in the roots-gospel category.
Mainstream country superstar Maren Morris is another white ally who has used her voice to bolster the movement. At the 2020 CMA Awards, when the conversation was still almost entirely centered around the sorry plight of women in general at country radio, Morris used an acceptance speech to narrow it down to Black women, and reeled off a list of the worthy voices her audience should be listening to.
“With this wave has come this boldness and new opportunities and platforms for people like me to be able to tell our stories, unfiltered and unencumbered by how culture says that a Black woman should should perform her story. I think it’s a really cool moment, and almost a history-repeating-itself moment, in the same way that we saw an Odetta or Tracy Chapman as Black women making music outside of the cultural norm.
They know they each have different roles to play in this revival, temperamentally as well as musically. Yola can elucidate some of them — noting, for example, that she takes a more tart approach when she’s raising awareness of herself and the community in interviews, whereas Russell can be a bit sweeter in leading potential allies by the hand.
“It reflects a culmination of the work these women have been doing all along – and each is finally receiving long-awaited accolades for their artistry and activism,” says Fram. “Mickey Guyton, who had her debut at CRS over 10 years ago. The powerhouse Yola, whose 2021 sophomore album detailed her life and truth as a Black woman to critical acclaim.
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