The gorgeous new album My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall captures the work of one most illustrious of the handful of Black Country songwriters (let alone a woman) in Nashville. Randall’s catalog includes work with legendary artists like Trisha Yearwood and Johnny Cash but draws inspiration from the work of Ray Charles, Charley Pride, Lil Hardin Armstrong, and DeFord Bailey, to name a few.
My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall is a source of pride and a celebration of the overlooked history of a uniquely American genre, highlighting its influence on Black culture in collaboration with some of today’s stellar Black femme artists, including Rhiannon Giddens, Adia Victoria, Allison Russell, Sunny War, Leyla McCalla, and other great voices, including Valerie June’s interpretation of “Big Dream.”
More: Valerie June on MBE 2017