That night several years ago was exquisite and filled with fun and the expectation of an enjoyable short journey with my wife and best friend. Throughout the years, we had several of these evening drives to who knows where, and frankly, I don’t know. Who cares as long as it was with her, the special someone in my life.

If you were to ask me our destination at this particular time, I’m not entirely clear on that. But one thing I do remember is that she was playing a most interesting collection of music. First was a song I later learned was Josh Turner, whose lyrical run caught my attention. “I’m talkin’ ‘bout white noise comin’  from the white boys Take me where those honky’s are a Tonkin.’  

After a laugh acting as a buffer against my apparent astonishment, another of his songs from that music collection began to play. This song became a personal favorite for me as a non-country music fan; nevertheless, I was captivated by its gravitational pull. That song was appropriately called Gravity. My Attractive African American Wife has always been a big country music fan. She shared with me that her appreciation of that Genre of American music came from the influence of her dearly beloved Grandmother.   

Now, back to the original song, a particular line kept me engaged. “It ain’t a thing ’bout black and white It’s Johnny Cash and Charley Pride.” To your average person, It is falsely perceived that Charley Pride was the yeoman lone African American Country and Western singer, including non-country music fans, especially African American ones. Years and several Josh Turner albums later, we now have Darius Rucker and the latest Beyonce Billboard Country Album of the Year, Act II: Cowboy Carter: Cowboy Carter is an abstract paying homage to the rich legacy of Black Cowboys, the true unsung heroes of Black labor in the Wild West. The Act II: Cowboy Carter Album also honored Linda Martell, who was the first black country woman to play the Grand Old Opry Stage.

It was written in Davie Browne’s September 2nd, 2020 Rolling Stone Article, “Linda Martell Country Music’s Lost Pioneer,” “Martell had a warm smile, a stylish beehive, and a way with Country phrasing, as heard on that hit single, “Color Him Father,” a story-song about a hardworking stepdad who cares for a woman and her seven children after her husband is killed in combat…”

Browne’s article goes on to say, “Recently, country music has shown some measure of progress in adding black voices: Kane Brown, Mickey Guyton, Jimmie Allen, and former Hootie and the Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker have all made inroads in recent years. But black artists were even more of a rarity in Country in the Sixties.”

The Banjo

Alex Haley’s Family saga started with a boy captured while chopping wood for a drum. This Story, verbally passed down through the generations, evolved into the miniseries “Alex Haley’s Roots.” Like the story of the drum crossed over the oceans, another East African Musical instrument we refer to as the banjo literally crossed over the oceans. The stringed instrument is made from a hollowed Gourd and stretched over animal skin. This new instrument came over with the slave and would sing the song of the generations of Americans, both black and white, that would sing its sad song.

“Nelson Mandela spoke of the role of music in that historic struggle: “Music… uplifts even as it tells a sad tale. You may be poor, you may have lost your job, but that song gives you hope… Politics can be strengthened by music, but music has a potency that defies politics.” Music and the Labor Movement, Labor History Month Volume CVIII, No. 5 May 2008.

The classical singer banjo playing multitalented musical dynamo, Rhiannon Giddens, has a deep knowledge of the history of the banjo, its roots, and the origins of black music. The Ingenuity of survival mechanisms through the unquenchable burnings of Black Striving in the face of impossible odds. It all birthed a cry which migrated into a song. If you listen closely to a popular Country song, you can hear that same cry/song. Even that twang is akin to the sound of a banjo, banjar, or banza, explained by Giddins as the variations of the new and collaborative instrument. Twang is a term applied to both phonic expression and amplitude from the banjo. The cry is also an essential of the African American story.  

The Minstrel Show

These strange new instruments are accompanied by the fiddle and a harmonica. Together they became a staple for entertainment and laughter as black-faced white entertainers traveled the country and the world promoting racism and ridicule by poking fun at African Americans. These shows were coined as Minstrel Shows. Through this the majority population developed a fascination of this new instrument and homespun musical and singing style. Out of it came what was known as Hillbilly Music. Hillbilly music signaled another slight against backward so-called uncultured, and ignorant agrarian people, both black and white. Hillbilly music was quite multiethnic in its antiquity.  

Many of the songs that early hillbilly artists played were likewise inherited and adapted from black sources — like slave spirituals, field songs, religious hymnals or the works of professional black songwriters. In Country Music, Burns traces how “When the World is On Fire,” a hymn arranged by a black minister, was turned into the Carter Family’s 1928 hit “Little Darling, Pal of Mine” — which was then turned into Woody Guthrie’s quintessential “This Land is Your Land.” Meanwhile, “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny” was written by James A. Bland, a black New Yorker who would hardly have found himself welcome in parts of Virginia had he still been alive in 1940, when it was named the official state song.

Time Magazine: “Black Artist Helped Build Country Music—And Then It Left Them Behind” By Andrew r. Chow X September 11, 2019: 01 PM EDT 

The Skidmore News notes in a February 23, 2022 article by Zia Foxhall entitled “A Dive into the Black History of Country Music: Giving Credit Where it’s Due” “Hillbilly music, which would later be renamed country, became the music of the south. Hillbilly music was not solely centered around the banjo; the first hillbilly artists drew inspiration from slave spirituals, field songs, hymns, and the blues, which itself has black origins. In the 1920s and 30s, despite America being a deeply segregated nation, both Black and white hillbilly artists collaborated on a number of popular tracks. According to Patrick Huber, a history professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology, “Nearly 50 African-American singers and musicians appeared on commercial hillbilly records between those years — because the music was not a white agrarian tradition, but a fluid phenomenon passed back and forth between the races.”

A Rolling Stone Magazine review by Will Hermes entitled “How Ken Burns Connected Every Dot of Country Music’s Rich History in his new film,”

“The filmmaker’s new documentary is a journey into the nation’s rowdy, sentimental, multicultural soul ” The article notes, “The film also points out how many country greats had African American musical mentors, and how little-known their contributions are. Hank Williams learned from Rufus “Tee Tot” Payne, Bill Monroe from Arnold Schultz, Johnny Cash from Gus Cannon. Lesley Riddle helped the Carter Family collect and learn songs; Rodgers learned to sing and play the blues from black musicians as a railroad water boy, and made one of his most famous recordings, “Blue Yodel No. 9 (Standin’ on the Corner),” with Louis Armstrong. The film doesn’t sidestep racism in the music’s history.”

The Generation Returning

Noted in an article called “Singing Styles: 7 Singing Styles and Genres” to Know Written by MasterClass, Last updated: Mar 14, 2022

“Country: This musical style from the United States incorporates elements of folk, bluegrass, blues, and rural dance music. The defining characteristic of the country singing style is twangy vocals, but it’s important to let your vocal twang come through naturally instead of forcing it. From its inception, country music also emphasized group singing. Early acts like the Carter Family featured family members singing together. In recent years, country singers like Miranda Lambert found pop success by teaming up with other vocalists. If you’re pursuing a career in country music, consider finding a duet partner to go on the journey with you.”

The collaboration and diversity of his biracial background personify is reaching more ethnic and cultural communities than ever. According to his quote in a Tennessean article entitled “12 Black artists shaping country music’s future” by Matthew Leimkuehler, Dave Paulson Published 5:01 a.m. CT Sept, 23, 2021I Updated 3:04 p.m. CT Dec. 22, 2024

“At every show, I see my people,” Kane Brown said on his 2020 single “Worldwide Beautiful.” “They ain’t the same, but they’re all equal…”

The Tennessean later clarifies, “But Brown hasn’t just racked up sales – he’s built bridges. Through collaborations with John Legend, Camila Cabello, Khalid, and Marshmello, he’s taken the modern country sound into uncharted territory.”

Now, that is something that resonates with my personal conviction and with the vision of Three-Fifths Magazine. I think Country Music may have won over a new fan.

The same article says, “Over the last five years, the 27-year-old singer has become one of country music’s biggest new stars, scoring six No. 1’s at country radio. His first two albums have gone double platinum and platinum, respectively…”

Whether the serious bends on life’s popular themes, the fun and flirtatious vibes of Taylor Adell, the Soulful depth of Mickey Guyton, or more classic country artists such as Darius Rucker, country music is getting more colorful.

With their article, The Tennessean put together this list of artists and suggestions for your playlist.

Jimmie Allen

For your playlist: “Freedom Was a Highway”

Allison Russell

For your playlist: “Persephone”

Amythyst Kiah

For your playlist: “Black Myself”

Brittney Spencer 

For your playlist: “Sober & Skinny”

Shy Carter

For your playlist: “Good Love”

Breland

For your playlist: “Cross Country”

The War and Treaty

For your playlist: “Take Me In”

Mickey Guyton

For your playlist: “All American”

Blanco Brown 

For your playlist: “Nobody’s More Country” 

Willie Jones 

For your playlist: “American Dream”

Yola 

For your playlist: “Stand For Myself” 

Country Music will never be the same, or maybe that is how it was supposed to be all along. Etched out of the heartstrings of enslaved people through their unique instrument, i.e., the banjo, equal to their passionate existence with every twang of the strings echoing through the hollows of the stringed instrument, to the twang of elongated vowels and that signature cry straight from the soul. This great American musical experiment sprinkled the fertile soil of a land whose attempts at building a more perfect union become nearly tangible when captured and empowered by a song. The power of music is measureless, timeless, and, at the same time, spiritual. A song and a cry have survived four hundred years of struggle.

Scripture says in Romans 8:26, “ A similar thing happens when we pray. We are weak and do not know how to pray, so the Spirit steps in and articulates prayers for us with groaning too profound for words. The word groan could just as easily be exchanged for “Cry,” also noted as the sound doctors seek in order to verify life when an infant comes into the world.

The cry and tears of a four-hundred-year saga yet play through those hillbilly songs and the Blues they birthed to the Rock and Roll, Jazz, R&B, and Hip-Hop threshed out upon the threshing floor of human existence beyond every limitation. That is black history, American history, and human history, highlighted by Black Labor, Black Striving, Black Ingenuity, and Black Resistance.