My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall

A novelist and professor based at Vanderbilt University, Alice Randall first tasted success as a Nashville songwriter when Trisha Yearwood brought "XXXs and OOOs (An American Girl)" to the top of the Billboard Country charts in 1994. Randall spent much of the next decade as a successful songwriter, eventually transitioning out of professional music after the publication of The Wind Done Gone in 2001. Twenty-three years later, she published My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Musics Black Past, Present, and Future, which explores her history with country along with the genres history with race. To accompany its publication, Oh Boy released My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall, a collection of 11 new recordings of tunes from her songbook, all delivered by Black women. Prior to My Black Country, none of Randalls songs had been recorded by a Black woman, so this album is as overdue and necessary as it is revelatory. Most of Randalls songs were cut by musicians firmly within Nashvilles commercial mainstream, whereas the artists on My Black Country are typically classified as Americana, even when theyre fairly traditional country singers such as Miko Marks. Hearing Randalls songs sung in atmospheric, folk-inflected arrangements helps place her songbook within a rich vein of American music, one that stretches back to folk and blues and runs through soul, pop, and beyond. Each artist here stays true to their own voice -- Sunny War testifies like a street-punk preacher on "Solitary Hero," Rhiannon Giddens gives "The Ballad of Sally Anne" a dexterous and adventurous arrangement that blends folk and jazz, and Valerie June lingers in the luxurious corners of "Big Dream" -- which in turn helps illustrate the depth of Randalls work, a trick that only the best tribute albums accomplish. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine