Lilli Lewis knows for certain that numbers don’t lie. Just ask her about a data set revealed by Dr. Jada E. Watson of the University of Ottawa. In a March 2021 report, Watson revealed that “over the last two decades, just 1.5% of the country artists with songs played on the format are Black, Indigenous, Artists of color. BIPOC women are drastically underrepresented on radio, just 0.4% of the artists played.”
This was no surprise to Lewis, whose music runs a gorgeous gamut from Americana and folk to rock, and country. The music maven born in Athens, Georgia, who learned to play by ear and sight read vocal music in her father’s church, states, “I see all that happening and I look at our locals like Kelly Love Jones and Joy Clark, and know that even if a city as musical as New Orleans doesn’t know what to call them or how best to support them, that there really is an industry for us. So many of us don’t even think we have a genre because we’ve been told we don’t belong in genres like folk, Americana and Country. That’s actually what my album Americana is about…folks telling me where I don’t belong and me choosing to take up space wherever I see fit.”
So now in a city steeped in Black music, it’s fascinating that Lewis is not constantly booked out. (Have you ever heard her song “My American Heart?” If not, change that immediately.) And despite this, she has an unending positive timbre in her voice. Each time she sees a fellow artist (like around-the-town country gals Chapel Hart) “get their flowers,” the enthusiasm and excitement for her peers is genuine. But as we discuss the Black Lives Matter Movement and the data revealed by Dr. Watson, Lewis’s words are accentuated with what feels like storm clouds.
“[It was] Black Lives Matter until they wanted to use us as the help. All of a sudden we feel like we are being sent into the kitchen again. Even among people who mean well, they are having a really hard time seeing Black people in particular as full, self-sovereign, grown-ass folk. We are left in a situation where we have to do our best to survive and have to slowly navigate our ways to spaces that are accepted.”
She sighs.
“It’s exhausting and the struggle is real. I mentioned we are figuring out we have to build our own ecosystem. I’m fat, I’m Black, I’m a woman, I’m from the South, and I’m gay so there are all these things about me that invisibilize me in all these spaces. I was scouted by a number of larger labels when I was getting started and they felt they didn’t know how to market me. I kept going up to New York for these showcases. What’s happened for me is people kept passing on me so I kept doing it myself.”
And she keeps going. Last year the folks at Rolling Stone and thousands of others watched the artist and then General Manager (now VP) at Louisiana Red Hot Records speak on issues of inequality in the Americana music scene at Black Equity in Americana, a virtual panel discussion featuring artists like Aida Victoria , Rev. Sekou, Kamara Thomas, and Lilli Lewis, and hosted by the Americana Music Association. People were watching and listening as she spoke about Black artists on her label like Roland Guerin, who because of being Black and self-identifying as a roots singer, would get thrown into the genre of R&B. The discourse was streamed over 50,000 times and the panelists revived the panel the following month. Realizing that’s no small number for a panel on Black music, Lewis and her cohorts started brainstorming about ways in which Black artists could launch their own musical ecosystem.
“We started brainstorming and philosophizing. Kamara has an organization based out of North Carolina called Country Soul Songbook and held a few summits that centered Black and brown, as well as LGBTQIA+ artists. Marcus and I started working on developing a festival centering on Black and brown Country and Americana artists; thinking whiskey, horses, and putting that all together. As we all spoke, it started to get more and more about the power structure in Nashville.”
This author shyly raises the subject of Lil Nas X, whose 2019 hit “Old Town Road” with Billy Ray Cyrus sold 10 million total units in the United States and was the fastest song to be awarded diamond certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Notably, the song reached number 19 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart before the magazine disqualified it from the chart on the grounds that it did not fit the genre, sparking a debate on the definition of country music. Nas X would go on to face more controversy as he came out as gay.
“Lil Nas X is crucial in this whole convo! My theory is Nashville is gonna follow the money and Lil Nas X showed how much money there was in integrating country. I feel this round of revolution started with him but in the meantime we’ve had a real crisis. A financial moment met a social moment and it lit up like wild fire. What is significant before this moment is that Black artists used to have to show up as country purists and a big example of this was Charley Pride. He was center of the road country and never did a single inflection that implied that he wasn’t center of the road country. He even made apologizing for his race a part of his live show. What I like about this moment is that we are following his footsteps but aren’t being as performative. We’re showing up as ourselves and the music is more intersectional. But if you are in the middle of the road, good for you.”
Lewis says budding journalist Holly G on Twitter has her finger on the pulse of this movement. “While we were all brainstorming, out of the blue, this young brilliant soon to be journalist but really passionate human with a lot of energy and intelligence (@_love_holly_ on Twitter) started this thing Black Opry in April. She started by just featuring one Black artist per day from the Americana and Country mix. Black Americana twitter said, ‘Yes! This is what we’ve been waiting for!’”
Lewis started compiling a database after PR reps and media and radio professionals said they would feature Black people in these genres “if we could find them.” So Lewis put in the work and will be launching “Country Soul Phone Book” by the end of July. And now, the Americana philosophers are putting together BlackOpry Fest centering Black Americana singer/songwriters and those who feel adjacent, with national artists from Gangstagrass as featured on America’s Got Talent and Nashville’s Rissi Palmer, and locals like Erica Falls and Dwayne Dopsie already confirmed. So not only will media tastemakers undeniably have access to a data set of Black artists, there will be an event to spotlight these artists. Lewis is planning on organizing Black Opry right here in New Orleans.
“I see all that happening and I look at our locals like Kelly Love Jones and Joy Clark, and know that even if the city doesn’t know what to call them or how best to support them, that there really is an industry for us. So many of us don’t even think we have a genre because we’ve been told we don’t belong in genres like folk, Americana and Country. That’s actually what my album Americana is about…folks telling me where I don’t belong and me choosing to take up space wherever I see fit.
“What I love so much about what’s happening is that we’re not really waiting for the industry to recognize us. We’re building our own infrastructure and to tell you the truth, I think the future of the industry depends on this sector right now, because the soul of the industry is leaning on being bankrupt and these kinds of artists, children of Tracy Chapman, Joan Armatrading, Phoebe Snow, Odetta….telling their stories with transparency and vulnerability, putting hearts, lived experience and first and foremost, undeniable musicianship front and center, is going to remind everyone what makes music so essential to our survival.”
Black Opry Fest is currently scheduled for October 27-31 and “Americana” by Lilli Lewis will be released Friday, October 29.
