• My Black Country

  • A Journey Through Country Music's Black Past, Present, and Future
  • By: Alice Randall
  • Narrated by: Alice Randall
  • Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (4 ratings)

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My Black Country  By  cover art

My Black Country

By: Alice Randall
Narrated by: Alice Randall
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Publisher's summary

Alice Randall, award-winning professor, songwriter, and author with a “lively, engaging, and often wise” (The New York Times Book Review) voice, offers a lyrical, introspective, and unforgettable account of her past and her search for the first family of Black country music.

Country music had brought Randall and her activist mother together and even gave Randall a singular distinction in American music history: she is the first Black woman to cowrite a number one country hit, Trisha Yearwood’s “XXX’s and OOO’s”. Randall found inspiration and comfort in the sounds and history of the first family of Black country music: DeFord Bailey, Lil Hardin, Ray Charles, Charley Pride, and Herb Jeffries who, together, made up a community of Black Americans rising through hard times to create simple beauty, true joy, and sometimes profound eccentricity.

What emerges in My Black Country is a celebration of the most American of music genres and the radical joy in realizing the power of Black influence on American culture. As country music goes through a fresh renaissance today, with a new wave of Black artists enjoying success, My Black Country is the perfect gift for longtime country fans and a vibrant introduction to a new generation of listeners who previously were not invited to give the genre a chance.

©2024 Alice Randall (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

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What listeners say about My Black Country

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Extraordinary!

This is probably the best book I have ever read! I hated for it to end!!!

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Beautifully historical

I love how she tells us the truth! This is a beautifully told, necessary truth about the mothers of country. Thank you for sharing these.

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Don’t like country music.

I don’t like country music never will. I don’t care who preformed it. I don’t care who wrote it. The author can’t convince me black people had any thing to do with it. I am black and never listened to country and never will.

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