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BMAC Panel Examines Black Artists’ Challenges in Nashville, Asks Whether Beyonce’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ Will Help or Hinder Country Artists of Color
BMAC's 'Rooted in Country' discussion addressed the challenges Black country artists face — and asked whether Beyonce's album will help or hinder.
It started in the 1800s, and [pioneering African-American blues-country guitarist] Lesley Riddle taught the Carter Family.” And although she acknowledged the progress of contemporary artists like Darius Rucker, Mickey Guyton, Kane Brown, Brittney Spencer and Americana-leaning performers like Alison Russell, it remains an uphill battle. While in many ways it’s an ultimate outsider power move — Beyonce has said the album was “born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed…and it was very clear that I wasn’t,” likely referring to her performance of her earlier country song “Daddy Lessons” with Nashville outcasts the Chicks on the 2016 CMA Awards — it’s also a sign of the slow progress of change that confronts all female musicians. Holly even said that she has received death threats for her outspokenness — even though she did not speak out about Jason Aldean’s controversial video for “Try That in a Small Town,” which was filmed in front of a Tennessee courthouse where both a lynching and a race riot had taken place decades earlier (he said he wasn’t aware of the history, but didn’t really apologize for it either).
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