Alice Randall set to release groundbreaking memoirs, new LP, 'My Black Country'
Alice Randall's four-decade-long legacy as one of Nashville's ultimate multi-hyphenates -- chart-topping country songwriter, legendary music publisher, award-winning author and Vanderbilt University's Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities -- continues with the release of her memoirs and a new collaborative LP -- both entitled "My Black Country," out on Apr. 9 and 12, from Simon & Schuster and John Prine's Oh Boy Records, respectively.
Given that Randall herself -- alongside Matraca Berg -- was the first Black woman to write a No. 1 country single, Trisha Yearwood's 1994 hit "XXX's and OOO's (An American Girl)," the LP's list of collaborators attempts to rectify the notion that in the genre's mainstream ranks, nearly a century has elapsed without a No. 1 single on country's Billboard or Mediabase charts from a Black female performer.
The list of LP collaborators for Randall's new work includes Rhiannon Giddens, Adia Victoria, Allison Russell, Valerie June, Leyla McCalla, Caroline Randall Williams (Alice's daughter), SistaStrings, Miko Marks, Sunny War, Saaneah Jamison, and Rissi Palmer.
The release's first single, South Carolina-born and Nashville area-residing singer-songwriter Victoria's "Went For A Ride," is, like "XXXs and OOOs," a brilliantly intentional piece of songwriting delivered with both a guitar and nuanced, highly emotive depth and scope familiar to Victoria's ability to embody and evolve sounds, stylings and traditions both her own and historical. As perpetually is found in her work, an equal eye to rectifying Black creativity's historical presence and continuing influence is achieved.
"Because all the singers of my songs had been white, because country has white-washed black lives out of country space, most of my audience assumed the stars of my songs were all white. I wanted to rescue my Black characters. This album does that; it centers black female creativity, but it welcomes co-creators and allies from a myriad of identities. This is the good harvest: abundant love and beauty for all," asserts Randall in a press release.
About her motivations as a singer-songwriter, Victoria highlighted the following about multi-generational African-American folklore's impact on her work in a July 2023 Tennessean feature:
"Folklore endures. That's its greatest power. It's relevant to whatever place, situation, or time it's rediscovered because, since human beings have a very limited skill set of how we react to circumstances, we don't change. Using folklore to cut myself down to size and scale to remain centered when I feel like I'm experiencing something 'unprecedented' or I feel alienated from my surroundings, those words snatch me back into realizing that I'm just the latest in a lineage of people who continue to experience the human condition.'
In March 2023, Randall told The Tennessean the following about her intentions when she arrived in Nashville in 1983.
"I had the audacious, self-made determination to become a female creative and executive who was also a songwriter. I also wanted to show and spotlight Black people taking up space in the Nashville-based country music industry and support feminine but feminist political statements couched in country music."
The book arrives following singer Tracy Chapman's monumental 2023 Country Music Association Awards victory for Song of the Year via Luke Combs' cover of her nearly four-decade-old single "Fast Car " This made her the first Black woman to win a Country Music Association award.
The album is produced by acclaimed African-American female creative Ebonie Smith, whose credits include "Hamilton," Cardi B's "Invasion of Privacy," Janelle Monae's "Dirty Computer," Sturgill Simpson's "A Sailor's Guide to Earth" and more.
Moreover, a press statement adds that Randall's memoir "honors the pioneering figures of Black country [music] and [chronicles] her four-decade journey through the genre."
Drawing inspiration from Black contributions to the country, roots and folk genres and a "poignant reclamation of Randall's own work depicting powerful Black narratives," the book also revives the legacies of the self-described "first family of Black country music" -- including DeFord Bailey, Lil Hardin, Ray Charles, Charley Pride, and Herb Jeffries -- to create "a celebration of the quintessentially American music genre, highlighting the profound influence of Black culture [in country music]."
Prine's widow and Oh Boy Records president Fiona adds that working on the "My Black Country" LP was "one of the highlights of [her] career."
"I am humbled that Alice trusted me with her ideas and dreams. These are important songs with lyrics that speak to today. Oh Boy Records is proud and excited to introduce this project to the world."
"My Black Country" is currently available for pre-save.
My Black Country Tracklist:
Small Towns - Leyla McCalla
Girls Ride Horses - SistaStrings
Went for a Ride - Adia Victoria
Sally Anne - Rhiannon Giddens
Solitary Hero - Sunny War
Cry - Miko Marks
Many Mansions - Allison Russell
Get The Hell Outta Dodge - Saaneah Jamison
Who’s Minding The Garden - Rissi Palmer
Big Dream - Valerie June
XXX’s and OOO’s - Caroline Randall Williams
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Alice Randall set to release groundbreaking memoirs, new LP, 'My Black Country'
