The newly released album My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall (on the John Prine-founded label Oh Boy Records) features 11 stirring and lively reinterpretations of the songs of groundbreaking songwriter, writer, and producer Alice Randall, who in 1994 became the first African-American woman to write a number-one country hit (Trisha Yearwood’s “XXX’s and OOO’s (An American Girl)”).
With the recording project itself evolving out of Randall’s desire to write about the many overlooked pioneering figures of Black Country music and their contributions to the genre as well as her own trailblazing four-decades long career in Nashville, it makes sense that its release coincides with the release of the companion book of the same name. Both the record and the book stand as important and vital additions to the history of American music.
With the songs being produced by the award-winning producer, audio engineer, and singer-songwriter Ebonie Smith and performed by an all-star musical lineup featuring Rhiannon Giddens, Adia Victoria, Allison Russell, Valerie June, Leyla McCalla, Caroline Randall Williams (Alice’s daughter), SistaStrings, Miko Marks, Sunny War, Saaneah, and Rissi Palmer respectively, the album not only celebrates Randall’s outstanding compositions but also simultaneously serves to highlight the vast pool of Black female talent that exists in the world of Americana music.
While the songs themselves tell stories specifically from a Black woman’s point of view, they are instantly relatable to a vast number of American women. These are songs about fiercely independent women who suffer and fight to maintain their dignity in a world run by and created by men. They are universal stories of women who see the world as it is and have a steely resolve to keep their faith and hope amidst devastating and oftentimes foreboding circumstances.
In an album full of highlights, three performances that especially stand out are Giddens’ heart wrenching “The Ballad Of Sally Anne,” Marks’ inspirational “I’ll Cry For Yours,” and Russell’s soaring “Many Mansions.”
This record is a new instant American classic that should be heard by anyone who maintains any kind of desire to learn more about the music we profess to love and where it comes from.
Both the record My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall and the companion book are now available on Alice Randall’s website.