If BET won't have her, CMT ought to

Baldilocks puts me on to some good country music by Rissi Palmer:

I like that song and I like the video. More about Rissi Palmer here. (UPDATE: her site is here.)

Okay, let's talk some politics here.

Somewhere in the last ten years or so, "Urban" and "Black" became more or less synonymous. That strikes me as odd because much black history in this country is rural (often tragically, but see also George Washington Carver). near where I grew up, there were a lot of black folks living in the country. There were black farmers and black rodeo cowboys and folks who probably spent a lot more money at Tractor Supply than they did at FUBU. I would think that rural music might have something to say to them. Not just rural people of course; there's country music in the cities, too, but especially them.

But let's face it--there aren't a lot of black country singers or country music fans, are there? In some ways I'm not surprised since country has some, er, negative associations.

Still, there shouldn't be. I've got Ray Charles singing Don Gibson's songs on this album (in old, scratchy vinyl, purloined from my parents' collection). (N.B. track thirteen was playing when one of my kids was born.) Sure, Ray made those songs a lot bluesier than Don Gibson did. But that was some great source material he worked with. Look, if Ray Charles doesn't have a problem with country, why should anyone?

Here's another one: you can't tell me Charley Pride (warning--music plays if you click there) isn't country. From all I hear Charley is a great guy--he's living in Dallas, still touring, I hope to shake his hand before one or the other of us kicks off--and a country music institution. He's faced discrimination and racism in his life--he started out playing baseball in the Negro American League--but he's succeeded in spite of that and earned a well-deserved place in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000.

I've got a track from one of Charley's albums recorded live in 1969 in which he talks about--in a roundabout way--some of these issues. In part it goes like this:

I get a lot of questions asked me, you know, people like to know where the artist is from..and, uh, I was born in Sledge, Mississippi and raised there until I was about 17 years old. I live up in Great Falls Montana right now. But I get a lot of questions asked me, says, "Charley, how'd you get into country music?" and "Why you don't sound like you're supposed to sound?" [Laughter] Heh, well, I...it is a little unique, I admit. But I been singing country music since I was about five years old, and this is why I sound like I sound. I've been singing and listening to the Grand Ole Opry since then.

Point being, if you want to listen to country music, listen to country music. And if you want to sing country music, then sing country music. There are few barriers to entry; all you need is three chords and the truth. Why, these days there's even neocontry music! We ain't prejudiced.

P.S. Charley's monologue is even funnier after that, as he tells about a lovestruck fan in Conroe, Texas who will not believe Pride is, uh...(here he doesn't even say "black"; I imagine he just winked at the audience) until she hears him sing "Just Between You and Me", and then Pride imitates her squeal of It's true! It's true!

Prior Country Music blogging at JYB: Huckabee misquotes George Jones, My buddy Heidi, Boots Randolph, Norah Jones goes Dixie Chick, Hillary auditions for CMT, Chely Wright sings in Iraq, Dixie Chicks suppressed--Wreckers best!, RIP Freddy Fender, RIP Don Walser, More Dixie Chix, Cari Lee and the Saddle-ites, a brief Buck Owens reference, Ray Stevens reads JYB, and saving the best for last: a little George Strait parody, The Sheiks of Bakersfield.

(Hmmm...I should really start using categories or something.)