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It\u2019s a misrepresentation of history to consider country music the domain of white people. Many persons of color have helped to shape the American musical form, and their contributions have been important ones. Burnsville N.C. native Lesley Riddle, Charley Pride and Grammy Award winning artists Dom Flemons and Rhiannon Giddens are among Black artists who have made important marks on country and folk music. And those names are but a sampling.<\/p>\n
As a Black woman in country music, Rissi Palmer may have had to work harder than most to gain her place in the scene. But through determination and sheer talent, she has done that and more. Today Palmer is a successful recording artist; touring performer; radio, television and podcast personality.
\nAnd from the start, she turned challenges into opportunities. \u201cThere were times in the first part of my career that I felt like a novelty,\u201d she admits. But Palmer acknowledges that sometimes novelty can open doors. \u201cPeople may have been like, \u2018Oh, she\u2019s a Black country singer; I\u2019m curious about this.\u2019 So they come to see. But talent is what gets them to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palmer says that she could choose to be hurt and offended by that initial skepticism. But that\u2019s not her way. \u201cI use it as a motivator,\u201d she says. When she finds herself in a situation where she\u2019s seen as something new and unusual because of her race, she turns things around. \u201cIn those situations, I like to show you that, actually, I should’ve been here all along.\u201d<\/p>\n
And in fact she has been. Rissi Palmer\u2019s childhood was spent in Pennsylvania and Missouri, but both of her parents are Southerners, and their musical tastes made a deep impression on her. \u201cBoth my mom and my dad are from Georgia,\u201d she says. So she spent a lot of time in Georgia, listening to the country music that her family loved. She believes that her immersion in country music was \u201cmore nurture than nature.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palmer has always had a deep affinity for what she calls \u201cvocal-forward\u201d music that tells stories. So while she names country superstars like Patsy Kline, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers as inspirations, her original music reflects the influence of artists like James Taylor, Phoebe Snow and Lionel Richie as well. \u201cA lot of Lionel Richie\u2019s music is written like country songs,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Country music\u2019s focus on storytelling \u2013 and the give-and-take that comes from the storytelling tradition \u2013 drew Palmer into the music. \u201cI grew up liking to tell stories, and I liked to get a reaction from the stories that I was telling,\u201d she says. And that approach would inform her approach to public performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI talk a lot<\/i> to the audience,\u201d Palmer says. She cites a neologism coined by India.Arie to describe her own approach. \u201cI like to make it \u2018songversational.\u2019 I’ll tell y’all a story, and I let you know what my motivation was behind writing the song, what I was thinking about,\u201d she explains. \u201cAnd I invite you to react to what I’m saying and how I’m feeling.\u201d That two-way communication transforms a Rissi Palmer concert into something more than a performance.<\/p>\n
And Palmer makes use of that back-and-forth in other ways, too. She and her band try out new material in front of live audiences. \u201cSoul Message\u201d from her third album (2019\u2019s Revival<\/i>) was written a decade before it was recorded. \u201cIt sounds different from when we first started,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd that had everything to do reaction: how the audience reacted to it, how the band reacted to it, how I reacted to it. Feedback plays a huge role both in my live show and in my music.\u201d<\/p>\n
As much as its possible in today\u2019s society, Palmer can be thought of as a post-racial artist. When it\u2019s pointed out that she was the first woman of color in 20 years to get a song on the country charts (2007\u2019s \u201cCountry Girl\u201d), she admits that at the time, she didn\u2019t even notice. \u201cI wasn\u2019t aware of that superlative until it happened,\u201d she says. \u201cWhile I was excited \u2013 because that’s a big deal as an independent artist, as a new artist and for my very first single \u2013 it was kind of bittersweet. It\u2019s sad that in the 2000s there are still \u2018firsts\u2019 for Black people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even with a thriving and creatively fertile music career, Palmer remains best known to many for her other pursuits. \u201cEspecially in the last two years, a lot of people think of me as a host and a talking head,\u201d she says. Then she adds with a laugh, \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018But I have all this music over here!\u201d Yet in the end, Palmer believes that however one is being introduced to new audiences, the most important thing is that they are<\/i> being introduced. \u201cI look at it as different facets of the same diamond,\u201d she says. \u201cMaking music and singing is my #1 passion and first love. And anything that gets me back to doing my first love, I can’t really be mad at.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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