“At some point, it became an accepted cultural narrative that country music is the domain of white people. This has never been the case … The myth persists while a number of black artists are challenging its foundation, hiding in plain sight on the country charts or on tours or on the radio. They don’t care much for that myth. They tell a different story. And they tell it damn well.”
--Elamin Abdelmahmoud, Rolling Stone
Blacks in country music? Charley Pride and Darius Rucker are black country recording stars, but very few other black artists come to mind. A look at the very beginnings of the genre holds important information for this discussion. Blacks must be recognized as important country music innovators.
Way Back When – “Peer” Groupings
Ralph Sylvester Peer (May 22, 1892 – January 19, 1960) was an American talent scout, recording engineer, record producer and music publisher in the 1920s and 1930s. He pioneered field recording of music – audio recording produced outside a recording studio – when in June 1923 he took remote recording equipment south to Atlanta, Georgia, to record regional music outside the recording studio in such places as hotel rooms, ballrooms, or empty warehouses.
Peer has been described as “the beginning of the business of country music.” Working for a struggling record company, the white record executive had actually traveled to the South for the sole purpose of finding competition for Bessie Smith, the black Empress of the Blues. While there, he was convinced to record Fiddlin’ John Carson, in what became recognized as the first commercial country-music recording, “The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane.” Peer took credit for inventing something he called “hillbilly music” – what country was known as until after the Second World War.
Elamin Abdelmahmoud, Social Media Editor at BuzzFeed Canada, explains how this seminal country music connection soon reached segregated markets:
“Peer’s greatest contribution was as an innovator of the genre as a commercial tool: He found that by marketing hillbilly records to white audiences, and “race records” to black audiences, he could sell more records.
“It didn’t matter that what he found in the South were white and black musicians recording the same songs and playing the same music with the same instruments. It didn’t matter that the boundaries between genres didn’t exist. It didn’t matter that black musicians were teaching white musicians the art of the string band, and the white musicians were learning fast. For Peer, the label became the tool to sell the record. Then the sell became the story.”
(Elamin Abdelmahmoud. “Rewriting Country Music’s Racist History. Rolling Stone. June 05, 2020.)
The lack of black country performers is stark, considering that African-Americans had as much to do with the early development of the genre as they did with that of the blues or jazz. After the Civil War, black music centered on banjos and fiddles, the staples of bluegrass or “hillbilly music” that defined the country sound.
The 2013 book, Hidden in the Mix: The African American Presence in Country Music, begins with an academic work called “Black Hillbillies: African Americans on Old-Time Records, 1924-1932.” The author cross-references hillbilly and “race” recordings from that period and discovers more than 22 sessions featuring African-American and white musicians playing together, and the presence of more than 50 black hillbilly musicians.
(Diane Pecknold. Hidden in the Mix: The African American Presence in Country Music. 2013)
The following decades saw bluegrass and country greats like Hank Williams Sr., Bill Monroe and A.P. Carter learning from and collaborating with African-American musicians — Rufus “Tee Tot” Payne, Arnold Shultz and Lesley Riddle, respectively. Riddle’s extensive work with Carter, between 1928 and the early 1940s, is considered seminal to the creation of modern country music.
(Joe Bargmann. “Will Darius Rucker Break Country Music’s Color Barrier Once and For All?” Dallas Observer. July 05, 2016.)
The simultaneous establishment of the Grand Ole Opry and the signing on of radio station WSM to broadcast the Opry’s weekly shows became the catalyst for mainstream country. And just one black person was invited. DeFord Bailey, an African-American member of the Opry from its start, is regarded as a lonely trailblazer.
DeFord Bailey
DeFord Bailey (December 14, 1899 – July 2, 1982) born near the Bellwood community in Smith County, Tennessee, was the grandson of slaves. He learned to play the harmonica at the age of three when he contracted polio. Since he was unable to work the cotton fields for his sharecropping family, he used that time to develop his harmonica-playing talent.
By 1925, Bailey was working odd jobs around Nashville and gaining a reputation as the Hitchcock Building's harmonica-playing elevator operator. Bailey's first documented appearances were in 1926 according to the Nashville Tennessean including WDAD on January 14 and WSM on June 19.
Everyone in Bailey's family played music. When asked to describe the kind of music his own grandfather played, DeFord said: “Black hillbilly music. It was all around back then.” Of his own musical experience, DeFord Bailey told his biographer: “I didn't hang 'round. I came to perform. Then I went home.”
(David C. Morton. DeFord Bailey: A Black Star in Early Country Music. 1993.)
Bailey was the first performer to be introduced on the Grand Ole Opry and the first African-American performer on the show. He played several instruments but is best known for his harmonica tunes. His "Pan American Blues" is recognized as the first recording of a harmonica blues solo.
Several records by Bailey were issued in 1927 and 1928, all of them harmonica solos. In 1927 he recorded for Brunswick Records in New York City, and in 1928 he recorded eight sides for Victor in Nashville, three of which were issued on Victor, Bluebird and RCA.
Emblematic of the ambiguity of Bailey's position as a recording artist is the fact that his arguably greatest recording, "John Henry", was released by RCA separately in both its "race" series and its "hillbilly" series.
In 1941, the Opry fired Bailey. There are various opinions and conspiracies about the unpopular decision, most of which point to a financial dispute between ASCAP and the radio industry. Bailey's segment of the show relied on a small number of older songs, many of which were part of the ASCAP dispute. Whether this rotation of established tunes was Bailey's creative decision or an instance of the music business limiting the repertoire of an African American performer, those songs became a perceived financial risk for the program. Whatever actually happened, it was a harsh and sudden exit for one of the greatest to ever perform on WSM.
The Pride of Country Music
Even country music superstar Charley Pride – who grew up one of 11 children of poor sharecroppers in Mississippi and whose father tuned the family radio to the Grand Ole Opry show every week – spent a great deal of his career trying to have as few conversations about his race as possible. He’s not especially confrontational or cagey about it, despite the stories of hostile audiences and institutions numbering in the dozens. In doing so, in the eyes of many, he became the country star who transcended race. Even if his label at first tried to cover it up.
In 1967, Pride released his first single on RCA Victor and joined the Opry. But marketing a black artist to radio disc jockeys and station managers entailed failing to mention his race. For more than a year after he signed to RCA, the label didn’t send promotional photos of Pride when releasing his records. Pride says he didn’t see this as racist, but most historians view hiding his race as a capitulation to Jim Crow. Introducing himself before he performed, the African-American defrayed any racial apprehension his white audiences may have had by referring to his “permanent tan.”
In his 1994 autobiography, Pride: The Charley Pride Story, Pride recounts how Willie Nelson helped him early in his early career. He also notes in the book that Nelson referred to him as “Supernigger.”
In an interview, Pride showed an uncharacteristic flash of indignation when asked about the nickname. He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out his smartphone. “Look, we could talk about this all day,” he says, using an index finger to scroll through his photo library. “Willie did call me that – it was his term of affection for me. He’d say, ‘Hey, Supernigger!’ But here, look at this.”
“On the screen of his phone is a publicity portrait of a young Willie Nelson, hair slicked back and wearing a white oxford shirt and skinny black tie. Pride jabs his finger at the inscription on the photo. 'You see that there? What does it say? Can you read it?'
“It says: 'To the next No. 1 country singer, Charley Pride. Your friend, Willie Nelson.' This friendship, for Pride, is all that matters.”
(Joe Bargmann. “Will Darius Rucker Break Country Music’s Color Barrier Once and For All?” Dallas Observer. July 05, 2016.)
“There were white musicians in the ’60s who refused to get on the same stage as Charley Pride. That reflected what was going on in society. Country music is not an island unto itself.”
– Bill Bentley, Director of A&R for Vanguard Records.
An Americana Perspective
Rhiannon Giddens is a brilliant and acclaimed musician and also a historian of Americana. As a solo artist and as a member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, she skillfully weaves black experiences, history, and roots into her music. That includes infusing her songs with slave narratives and difficult histories. In 2017, she received the illustrious MacArthur Foundation grant, the one sometimes called the “genius grant.”
Of country music, Giddens says, “The idea of what country music is has been carefully constructed to seem like it was always white,”When asked about why people don’t know the history of country music, she’s got this answer down to a science. “White supremacy,” she tells me. “There is no other way to put it: It was constructed by numerous people as part of the white-supremacy movement.”
(Elamin Abdelmahmoud. “Rewriting Country Music’s Racist History. Rolling Stone. June 05, 2020.)
The 2020 Country Music Uproar – Chris Stapleton's BLM Remarks
Recently Darius Rucker has faced vitriol for his views, and for his work. “Hate mail has been a part of my life. That’s just the way it is,” Rucker said, in a 2014 interview with the Wall Street Journal. “People don’t want me singing country music. But I’ve never wanted to let anybody tell me what I can do.”
And most recently, country star Chris Stapleton faced criticism for coming out in support of Black Lives Matter, saying that the America he thought he lived in is a "myth." The country star opened up to “CBS This Morning” during an interview about his recently completed album "Starting Over."
"I think everybody should be doing more," Stapleton said. "It's time for me to listen. And it's time for other folks to listen."
"You know, I thought we were living in a different country. And that's 100% real," Stapleton said. "I feel like the country that I thought that we were living in was a myth."
When asked if he supported the Black Lives Matter movement, Stapleton added: "Do I think Black lives matter? Absolutely...I don't know how you could think they don't."
"I think we all have a lot of work to do, you know, as individuals and as a society," the singer added. "And if you don't think that, I think you're not looking."
(Tomas Mier. “Chris Stapleton Says Black Lives 'Absolutely' Matter: 'It's Time for Me to Listen.'” People. September 01, 2020.)
Stapleton's statement prompted some fans to call for a boycott of his work, with one writing: "Welp, looks like I'm done listening to another sell out." Another so-called “fan” writing: “Used to like you. Now me and everyone I know despises you.”
Applauded for his BLM comments by artists like Sturgill Simpson and Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton has put his career on the line for his convictions. Few would risk everything and reveal their true feelings to the nation during this time of racial unrest. God willing, his frankness will garner him legions of new fans who share his views.
Country music still doesn’t seem to have a great appetite for acknowledging that it’s built on black music, and black artists like DeFord Bailey, Ray Charles, Charley Pride, and countless others who helped it get here.
Country, as a genre, is obsessed with notions of patriotism, of purity, of some nondescript American-ness. To many fans in 2020, this hunger does not include a concern for the plight of Blacks.
Charles Hughes, a music scholar and the director of the Lynne and Henry Turley Memphis Center at Rhodes College, says …
“Country music is a stand-in for a lot of conversations that we are too often afraid to have, or even when we want to have them, we don’t necessarily have the language to do so effectively.”
And, evidently, much of the “conversation” of this genre does not include the point of view of Black America -- a vital part of the music since its inception. It is a conversation that should acknowledge that Black men are 2.5 times more likely than white men to be killed by police during their lifetime, and and Black people who were fatally shot by police seemed to be twice as likely as white people to be unarmed.
Country music has never quite lost its original racial designation. Strides have been made by a few brave pioneers ... including Chris Stapleton, a white man, but as Charles Hughes, Director of the Lynne and Henry Turley Memphis Center, says …
“The record industry marketed and promoted and created a language about the music from the beginning, and this continues through this day in some way, in which whiteness is, if not on the surface, then right below it.”
– Charles Hughes, music scholar
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