This hour originally released on April 15, 2024.

2024 is shaping up to be quite the interesting year in country music.

The release of Beyonce's Cowboy Carter on March 29 shook up the industry when one of her lead singles, "Texas Hold 'Em," shot to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and the Hot Country Songs chart, making the chanteuse the first Black woman to top the country chart in Billboard history.

Little more than a week later, acclaimed author Alice Randall released her memoir, My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music's Black Past, Present and Future. In it, she chronicles her early life and career as a country music enthusiast, songwriter and producer in Nashville. Her story is told against the backdrop of other Black country artists making their way through an overwhelmingly white industry.

Co-host Leoneda Inge chats with Randall, who joined us from Nashville Public Radio's studios, about her life, her memoir and the compilation album that accompanies it, My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall.

Later, two artists featured on that album stop by our WUNC studios to chat with Leoneda Inge.

Pulitzer Prize-winning singer and musician Rhiannon Giddens talks about her personal experiences with country music audiences and her involvement on Beyonce's single, "Texas Hold 'Em."

Singer-songwriter Rissi Palmer weighs in on what it was like to be a "traditional" country music artist in her early career, including being the first Black woman in 20 years to make the country charts with her 2007 single, "Country Girl." The host and creator of the Apple Music podcast, "Color Me Country," also discusses what it has been like preserving and amplifying the little-known histories of Black artists in the country music industry.

Palmer is currently curating a monthly music series at The Carolina Theatre. Her upcoming show featuring Gabe Lee will be held on April 25.

Guests

Rhiannon Giddens, singer, musician and historian

Rissi Palmer, singer-songwriter and host of Apple Music's Color Me Country

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