June is Black Music Month !

     June is Black Music Month, first proclaimed in 1979. The black influence on all forms of American music is immense, beginning with the introduction of the banjo, which was based on African gourd stringed instruments. Early country music, hillbilly music, in the early 20th century was often based on slave spirituals, field songs, and religious music.  In the second half of the 20th century, there were only a couple of black performers who made it big in mainstream country music, like Ray Charles and Charley Pride. It seems that as far as country music radio is concerned, the only black country star today is Darius Rucker. However in the last couple of years, there has been a resurgence of blacks in country music, with women leading the way. Whether you call it roots music, americana music, or country music, there is a lot of great stuff out there.

    My favorite music discovery of 2020 was Yola, a British black country singer. She's hard to classify; in her early career, she was known as a jazz and then an acoustic rock performer, but she's made herself at home in the country genre, performing with numerous country stars and becoming a sometimes-member of the Highwomen, a country female supergroup of sorts, and earning several Grammy nominations. On February 21, 2020, Variety announced that she has been cast to play the role of singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe — dubbed the Godmother of rock and roll — in Australian director Baz Luhrman’s still untitled drama on the life of Elvis Presley.

    Amythyst Kiah is country's brightest self-proclaimed queer up and coming artist. 

    For several years, Kiah was part of a folk/roots group called Our Native Daughters, and the group included Rhiannon Giddens,  Allison Russell, and Leyla McCalla. They released their first album as a group in 2019, but all are strong single artists as well. There's a really good Smithsonian documentary about their collaboration here  https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/details/show/reclaiming-history-our-native-daughters

    Finally, there's Mickey Guyton, who doesn't quite fall into the roots or Americana genres as the other performers. She is squarely in the pop/country category that country music radio plays today.