My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music’s Black Past, Present, and Future

Songwriter and fiction and cookbook author Randall (Black Bottom Saints; Soul Food Love) offers a blend of memoir and music history that considers what made it possible for contemporary Black artists like Rhiannon Giddens to rise in an industry that has never been color-blind. Narrating her own work with affection and well-placed emphases, Randall invigorates the conversation about race and country music by sharing the accomplishments of musicians Lil Hardin, DeFord Bailey, Charley Pride, Ray Charles, and Herb Jeffries, whom she calls “the First Family of Black country.” Randall connects their work to other greats like Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner, whose gospel roots and ballad structures cemented their place in the country music canon. As she proclaims country music’s distinctive Black identity, Randall also documents producing a new album that reimagines her previously recorded works through a Black women–centered lens, with her artistic heroes (including her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams).