My Black Country
eBook - ePub

My Black Country

A Journey Through Country Music's Black Past, Present, and Future

  1. 288 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

My Black Country

A Journey Through Country Music's Black Past, Present, and Future

About this book

Alice Randall, award-winning professor, songwriter, and author presents “a celebration of all things country music” (Ken Burns) as she reflects on her search for the first family of Black country music.

Country music had brought Alice Randall and her activist mother together and even gave Randall a singular distinction in American music history: she is the first Black woman to cowrite a number one country hit, Trisha Yearwood’s “XXX’s and OOO’s (An American Girl)”. Randall found inspiration and comfort in the sounds and history of the first family of Black country music: DeFord Bailey, Lil Hardin, Ray Charles, Charley Pride, and Herb Jeffries who, together, made up a community of Black Americans rising through hard times to create simple beauty, true joy, and sometimes profound eccentricity.

What emerges in My Black Country is “a delightful, inspirational story of persistence, resistance, and sheer love” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) of this most American of music genres and the radical joy in realizing the power of Black influence on American culture. As country music goes through a fresh renaissance today, with a new wave of Black artists enjoying success, My Black Country is the perfect gift for longtime country fans and a vibrant introduction to a new generation of listeners who previously were not invited to give the genre a chance.

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Yes, you can access My Black Country by Alice Randall in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Media & Performing Arts & Music Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Prelude: Back to the Studio
  5. Chapter 1: What Is Black Country?
  6. Chapter 2: In a Motown Cherry Tree: Learning to Write Hillbilly Songs
  7. Chapter 3: D.C. Daze: Small Towns (Are Smaller for Girls)
  8. Chapter 4: Encountering: The First Family of Black Country and Other Allies
  9. Chapter 5: Scaling Music Row Citadel: Screaming Like a Banshee in Belle Meade
  10. Chapter 6: Big Dreams: Big Hits, Big Mistakes
  11. Chapter 7: The Second-Best Gift My Bad Mama Gave Me: Mother Dixie
  12. Chapter 8: Revived the Rails: Cowboys, Pullman Porters, and Soiled Doves
  13. Chapter 9: The Archive and the Academy: Creating a New Country Canon
  14. Chapter 10: Far Yonder: Beyond Motown and Music City
  15. Encore: A Songbook Performed in a Wild Woman’s Town
  16. Nota Bene
  17. Acknowledgments
  18. Author’s Note
  19. About the Author
  20. Index
  21. Copyright