May 2025 Connections Mix Tape
The May 2025 Connections Mix Tape can be found on Spotify. Listen in-blog below for a more rich experience, or on Spotify for uninterrupted music. Please note below each song is a link to song lyrics for accessibility. Check out more details on how to best enjoy mix tapes.
Good day and welcome!
You’re listening to KMTJ-DB – Your Mix Tape Journey – Denver, Colorado.
I’m your host, DJ Ponyboy.
This month we have been exploring a genre of music written and performed by Black artists that was stolen by white folks in the names of racism and profit. I noted in last week’s tape, featuring songs written and performed by Black artists prior to the year 2000, the apparent dearth of songs both written and performed by Black artists through much of the 20th century – especially between 1945 and 1970.
You will find in next week’s mix tape, featuring country songs written and performed by Black artists in the 21st century, that today there are A LOT of incredible country songs being written, recorded, and performed by Black artists – so many that I had trouble choosing the best ones.
One of the voices that helped bridge the gap, especially in the 80’s and 90’s, is today’s featured songwriter, Alice Randall.
As Randall notes on the Oh Boy Records website, “Because all the singers of my songs had been white, because country has white-washed black lives out of country space, most of my audience assumed the stars of my songs were all white. I wanted to rescue my Black characters. This album does that; it centers black female creativity, but it welcomes co-creators and allies from a myriad of identities. This is the good harvest: abundant love and beauty for all”.
Welcome to Performed As Written: The May 2025 Connections Mix Tape, where we celebrate the career of Black songwriter Alice Randall through the centering of Black voices singing her songs.
Born in Queens, New York City, Lelya McCalla is an American classical and folk musician who is a founding member of Americana/folk group Our Native Daughters and played cello with the Grammy Award–winning string band Carolina Chocolate Drops before leaving to focus on her solo career.
Says Randall, “When Leyla McCalla sings … she echoes the sounds of the African diospora into the tapestry of her performance … as she sings the story of a girl in some hamlet somewhere on the planet reading about New York City”.
Performing Alice Randall’s song “Small Towns (Are Smaller for Girls)”, originally recorded by Holly Dunn in 1987, here is Leyla McCalla on KMTJ-DB, Denver.
Small Towns (Are Smaller for Girls) Lyrics
In addition to the racism prevalent in the country music industry, there is also an incredible amount of misogyny, and Black women end up being affected the most. One of my favourite things about Randall’s music is the centering of women’s voices and experiences in many of her songs.
From their website, “SistaStrings is a dynamic musical duo comprised of sisters Chauntee and Monique Ross, whose exceptional talent and versatility has made a profound impact on the music scene. With their unique blend of classical training, soulful melodies, and contemporary sounds, SistaStrings have established themselves as a formidable force within the music community. …
“Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Chauntee and Monique discovered their love for music at a young age. Growing up in a musically inclined family, the sisters were exposed to a diverse range of genres and instruments. Chauntee found her calling as a violinist, while Monique developed her skills as a cellist. Together, they embarked on a remarkable journey, fusing their classical training with their deep-rooted love for R&B, hip-hop, and gospel.”
Just browsing through the pictures of these sisters on their website, I’d bet you dollars to donuts their live shows are absolute fire. 🔥
Randall describes our next song as, “a story song about a drug-running man who tries to intimidate a girl and ends up getting robbed and educated by the girl. Beneath those events it’s the story of a girl who takes back her power – erotic, economic, and physical – from a man who attempts to seize and claim it”.
Performing the song “Girls Ride Horses”, originally recorded by Judy Rodman in 1987, enjoy SistaStrings.
In addition to the music we’ve been enjoying from the album My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall, I recommend checking out the companion book, My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music’s Black Past, Present, and Future, a fascinating journey through the history of Black country music and the life of Alice Randall.
Find this book and others on the Books tab of the Mix Tape Journey website, where I, DJ Ponyboy, curate a list of music-related books I recommend checking out.
Adia Victoria is an American singer and songwriter currently based in Nashville, Tennessee, who also writes poetry. Her music incorporates elements of rock, blues, punk rock and country, a style she has described as “gothic blues”.
On the experience of recording this song, Randall notes, “I didn’t have to imagine someone would sing the words, ‘He was Black as the sky on a moonless night’ and they would be Black, too. Didn’t have to imagine an artist would sing those words and they wouldn’t be othering the hero of the song, they wouldn’t be talking about the Black cowboy as a novelty, a curiosity. … When Adia Victoria sang … it was one great Black cowboy acknowledging another great Black cowboy”.
Performing her version of a song first recorded in 1992 by Radney Foster, enjoy Adia Victoria bringing Alice Randall’s song “Went for a Ride” to full life.
Rhiannon Giddens is a multi-talented American musician from Greensboro, North Carolina, and a founding member of the country and blues band the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Giddens has also released five solo albums, participated in a project setting recently-discovered Bob Dylan lyrics to newly-composed music, and in 2023, her opera Omar won a Pulitzer Prize for Music.
First recorded in 1991 by Mark O’Connor’s band project New Nashville Cats, today Giddens performs “The Ballad of Sally Anne”, a traditional tune paired with Randall’s lyrics that tells the story of a lynching.
The Ballad of Sally Anne Lyrics
Our next song was written as part of a five-suite Black country horse opera, along with two songs we’ve already heard, “Girls Ride Horses Too” and “Went for a Ride”, one song we will hear later in today’s tape, “Get the Hell Out of Dodge”, and one we will not hear today but I would love to hear recorded someday, “The Ballad of Nat Love”.
Active since 2014, Sunny War is an American singer and songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee with a sound frequently categorized as introspective folk-punk, blending rock, gospel, and country music.
Performing a song Randall references as containing, “the theme of the album, theme of the process of the project, and theme of my life: woman as simultaneously solitary and working in community”, here is Sunny Way singing “Solitary Hero” on KMTJ-DB, Denver.
Our next song was co-written by Randall in graveyards, “while walking through a Confederate graveyard, a Union graveyard, and a graveyard of the enslaved”.
American Americana singer Miko Marks has been active since 2005, was named Best New Country Artist at the 2006 New Music Weekly Awards, and got to work with Erykah Badu in an early music video.
Performing a song first recorded by Tamra Rosanes in 1992, Randall’s “I’ll Cry for Yours (Will You Cry for Mine)”, here is Miko Marks.
I’ll Cry for Yours (Will You Cry for Mine) Lyrics
Our next track was first recorded by Walter Hyatt in 1993.
Nashville-based singer Saaneah (Sah – Nee – Yah) describes herself as, “a southern singing goddess born and raised in Music City”, and has achieved milestones like a mural on the street she grew up on and a Grand Ole Opry debut with our next song, Randall’s “Get the Hell Out of Dodge” right here on KMTJ-DB – Denver, Colorado.
Get the Hell Outta Dodge Lyrics
First recorded by Glen Campbell in 1992, Randall describes our next track as, “the climate change anthem we need right now, one that will change the hearts and minds of Evangelicals not concerned about climate change as the planet experiences record breaking heat”.
Active since 2007, Rissi Palmer is an American country music artist whose debut “Country Girl” peaked at No. 54 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. She hosts Apple Music Country’s show Color Me Country Radio with Rissi Palmer.
I’m DJ Ponyboy, and this is Rissi Palmer and “Who’s Minding the Garden”.
Who’s Minding the Garden Lyrics
Our next song was included in the 1993 film The Thing Called Love, starring River Phoenix and Samantha Mathis (who first recorded the song) and featuring Sandra Bullock.
Valerie June is a Grammy-nominated American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and author from West Tennessee who blends psychedelic folk, indie rock, bluegrass, and more into a unique sonic universe.
Enjoy Valerie June with “Big Dream”, also known as “God’s a Woman, Too” on KMTJ-DB, Denver.
In 1994, Alice Randall became the first Black woman to have co-written a song reaching #1 on the Billboard country charts. From a line that came to her in the shower while contemplating her role as a mother tumbled our next song, made famous when recorded by Trisha Yearwood.
Performed here by Randall’s daughter, Caroline Randall Williams, over a sample from a DeFord Bailey tune. Bailey was featured on last week’s mix tape, Whitewashed Side A – check it out next!
Caroline Randall Williams with “XXX’s and OOO’s” on KMTJ-DB – Denver, Colorado.
From the Oh Boy Records website, “My Black Country is an exploration of the history of Black contributions to the country, roots and folk genres, and a poignant reclamation of Randall’s own work depicting powerful Black narratives”.
I am DJ Ponyboy and I am so glad you have joined me today. Make sure to come back next week for Side B of Whitewashed, where we celebrate country songs written and recorded by Black artists released in the 21st century.
You have been listening to KMTJ-DB – Your Mix Tape Journey – Denver, Colorado.
I’m your host, DJ Ponyboy.
Stay gold.