Mickey Guyton and the trailblazing black women of country music
|
Version 0 of 1. Mickey Guyton’s debut single Better Than You Left Me has the country music world all abuzz. The ballad scored the biggest radio debut in country music history when it hit airwaves two weeks ago, earning first-week adds on 79 stations across America. While that record may have much to do with modern radio consolidation, it’s nonetheless a remarkable feat – especially given the traditional nature of the song. Adorned with steel guitar and a slow waltz beat, Better Than You Left Me sounds like little else on country radio at the moment. What makes the feat even more remarkable is that Guyton is a black woman in an industry not known for its diversity. Granted, black artists have been a part of country music, which shares southern roots with R&B, since the genre’s inception, but only a small handful of these artists have found mainstream success. DeFord Bailey, the legendary harmonica player, performed at the Grand Ole Opry from 1927 until 1941. Charley Pride was an iconic star who had 39 songs reach No 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. And most recently, Darius Rucker has parlayed his Hootie and the Blowfish fame into a thriving country career. Related: A look at black artists in country music But what of the genre’s black women? How have they fit into the country music landscape? For the most part, they haven’t. The list of popular black female country singers is a very short one, and the women who have made their mark did so in a very concentrated period during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Linda Martell became the first African American woman to play the Grand Ole Opry in 1969, the same year that her cover version of The Winstons’ R&B smash Color Him Father became a top 25 country hit. Martell appeared on television programs like Midwestern Hayride and Hee Haw and released a few more singles to modest success, but she ultimately left the recording industry behind in 1974 to focus on raising her family. Around the same time, Tina Turner had her own breakout country moment. In 1974, just two years before her split with Ike Turner, she released her debut solo album Tina Turns the Country On!, on which she covered tracks such as Kris Kristofferson’s Help Me Make It Through the Night and Dolly Parton’s There’ll Always Be Music. The album wasn’t a commercial success, but it did earn a Grammy nomination (in the R&B category) and helped to launch Turner’s successful solo career. (She also recorded a number of sizzling country covers at Bolic Sound, her then-husband’s studio, in the 1970s. They have gradually trickled out to the public over the years on repackaged compilations like Tina Turner Sings Country, which features a dazzlingly raucous version of Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson’s Good Hearted Woman, a song reportedly written about Turner herself.) While Turner didn’t walk away with any trophies at the 1975 Grammy awards, that ceremony still marked a historical moment for black women (and all women) in the country music world. Nominated twice in the country category for their hit single Fairytale, the Pointer Sisters – yes, the purveyors of 1980s dance smashes like Jump (For My Love) and I’m So Excited – became the first all-female group to ever win a Grammy award when they received the prize for Best Country Vocal Performance by a duo or group. Shortly thereafter, Elvis Presley augmented the honor when he recorded a cover of Fairytale. Despite their country success, though, the Pointer Sisters eventually followed Turner’s lead to pursue a broader career in pop music. Few other black females have attained mainstream success in country music in the 40 years since that Grammy win. Dona Mason was a featured vocalist on Danny Davis’s cover of Green Eyes (Cryin’ Those Blue Tears), which reached No 62 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 1987, but she never broke out as a solo artist. Twenty years after that single’s release, Rissi Palmer made headlines across country media by becoming the first black female vocalist to appear on the country chart since Mason when her single Country Girl peaked at No 54. Palmer later released a “countrified” version of Jordin Sparks’s No Air, but the thinly disguised pop song only climbed to No 47, and she disappeared from radio soon after her arrival. A similar fate seems unlikely for Guyton, who has major label support in Capitol Nashville and has already garnered respect in influential circles on Music Row. Better Than You Left Me has built upon its splashy debut in the past two weeks, and it’s quickly moving up the charts and appears destined to blossom into a genuine hit. There is, of course, some debate as to whether the song’s early success has anything to do with country radio’s desire to come across as inclusive to both women and minorities, but Better Than You Left Me’s powerful climb suggests that it’s connecting on a level that transcends skin color. The song is lyrically substantive in an era of eye-roll-inducing “sweet little somethin’” trivialities. It is instrumentally rich in an age of drum machines and handclaps. And it’s unapologetically retro at a time when country’s men are chasing every EDM and hip-hop trend to the point of desperation. Factor in the passion and conviction with which Guyton delivers the song’s climactic bridge, and there you have a recipe for a soon-to-be smash hit that will resonate with country fans of all kinds. Guyton may just leave country music better than she found it. |