Black Artists and Country Music
A brief history of Black people and country music
Arguably one of the best performances at the 66th Grammy Awards was Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs’ duet singing “Fast Car.” The song was originally Chapman’s from her 1988 self-titled album but was covered by Combs for his 2023 album Gettin’ Old.
As many people on social media pointed out, the duet was exactly that: both artists let the other shine and seemed genuinely happy to be performing with one another. Combs’ respect for Chapman was palpable for good reason.
Chapman has won four Grammys over the span of her career, with a total of 13 nominations. She won three in 1989: Best Contemporary Folk Recording (Tracy Chapman), Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “Fast Car,” and Best New Artist (she was also nominated for Record and Song of the Year and Album of the Year). She later won Best Rock Song in 1997 for Best Rock Song, “Give Me One Reason” (she had a total of five nominations just in 1997). Combs has been nominated seven times, including this year for Best Country Solo Performance for “Fast Car,” but has never won a Grammy.
Chapman also praised Combs’ cover of her song and was happy to see that it was number one on Billboard’s Country charts in July 2023. She told Billboard, “I never expected to find myself on the country charts, but I’m honored to be there. I’m happy for Luke and his success and grateful that new fans have found and embraced ‘Fast Car.’”
In country, bluegrass, and folk music, covering songs is a huge part of the genre and learning pieces by ear and oral tradition. For example, banjo player Earl Scruggs learned to play the banjo by listening to the radio. The Carter Family, often referred to as “The First Family of Country,” made up of Sara Dougherty Carter, Maybelle Addington Carter, and A.P. Carter, were influenced by blues and gospel music, i.e., genres predominantly sung by Black artists.
In what would become a legendary story in country music, blues musician John Henry Lyons introduced A.P. Carter to Lesley Riddle, a Black musician from Kingsport, Tennessee, while hanging out with them on his front porch. The two got along wonderfully, but A.P. was most impressed with how Riddle could recall music and play songs on the guitar.
According to Birth Place of Country Music, Riddle once said, “I played a couple of songs for him [A. P.] and he wanted me to go back home with him right then and there… He was just going to get old music, old songs, what had never been sung in sixty years… He was going to get it, put a tune to it, and record it.”
The Carter Family worked with Ralph Peer, a music producer, who came to Bristol, Tennessee, with the intent of recording traditional hillbilly, mountain, and country songs — what would later become known as the Bristol Sessions. The Carter Family initially had hesitations about this, fearing the commercialization and monetization of the music would diminish the tradition. However, convinced that the whole country deserved to hear country music, they obliged.
Riddle described himself as The Carter Family’s “tape recorder.” He learned songs while traveling across the south with A.P. and could later teach them to Maybelle and Sara.
The group was also inspired by the way Black artists played their instruments. Though Maybelle Addington became famous for her “thumb-brush” guitar-playing technique, she and A.P. credited Riddle for helping them improve their guitar playing. Specifically, she credited him for teaching her the “bottleneck” style of playing the guitar, which is when guitar players utilize two fingers: the index to play the melody and the thumb to keep the rhythm. Though when asked decades later about teaching Maybelle, Riddle said he never really taught her: “You don’t have to give Maybelle any lessons. You let her see you playing something, she’ll get it — you better believe it.”
Fast forward nearly 100 years later, and you have Chapman and Combs continuing the oral tradition. Yet, Black people (specifically women) have not always been accepted in the genre.
On Nov. 2, 2016, The Country Music Association (CMA) had its annual awards ceremony, celebrating its 50th Anniversary of the CMA Awards, AKA “Country’s Biggest Night.” In honor of the milestone, The Chicks made up of Natalie Maines, Emily Robison, and Martie Maguire, performed with Beyoncé. While it may seem odd that Queen Bey was present at a country music awards show, the Chicks and Beyoncé performed her song “Daddy Lessons,” a country-influenced, New Orleans style, Southern twanged song from her ground-breaking album Lemonade. If you don’t remember this performance, it’s because it’s almost impossible to find online. CMA does not even have it on their official YouTube channel. But shout out to the Beyoncé Lives YouTube channel, which has the best quality of the performance below.
Beyoncé’s presence created such an uproar that CMA did not even promote the performance on social media because of the (racist) backlash they faced for having Beyoncé, whose single “Formation” and her Super Bowl performance had people accusing her of being anti-police and anti-American. CMA claimed that Beyoncé’s PR team didn’t want photos or videos circulating, but who could know for sure?
While Beyoncé took the bulk of the criticism, viewers also had issues with The Chicks, who were shunned from the country music world for being outspoken against former president George W. Bush. They are also vocal and powerful allies of the LGBTQIA+ communities. The group was formerly known as The Dixie Chicks but changed their name in 2020. After the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, the group wanted to distance themselves from the Confederate association of the word “dixie.” In short, The Chicks and Beyoncé were a little too political for the CMA Awards.
Even T-Pain spoke about how he loves country music (his cover of “Tennessee Whiskey” is amazing!) and is inspired by the genre for his own harmonies, but he doesn’t feel welcome in the space.
In a recent Instagram reel, T-Pain said, “I done wrote a lot of country songs and stopped taking credit for it because as cool as it is to see your name in those credits and shit like that, the racism that comes after it is just like… I’ll just take the check.”
The Chicks and Beyoncé, who are all proudly from Texas, are incredible representations of country music. Because their views contrast with the majority of conservative listeners of country music, they are not welcomed in the genre. Yet, they all continue to embrace their southern roots through music — not in defiance or out of spite, but because they love country music and their fans. The Chicks and Beyoncé offer their fans a safe and welcoming space to love country music, which more artists need to do.
The number of tweets after Chapman’s performance of people praising her, the excitement of seeing her onstage, people wanting to print and frame screenshots of her bright and bashful smile, and people who felt such nostalgia and pride for her show that there is a need and desire for more Black artists in country music. Especially when Black artists were so important to the establishment of the genre!
If CMA won’t support them, then it’s up to artists like The Carter Family, The Chicks, and Combs to make the space more welcoming and inclusive.
