Content note: If there are any musical artists in THIS blog post that you aren’t aware of, this is the SECOND blog post you will meet today that is already bored by too-cool comments like “Who?”
Allison Russell, she is this ridiculously talented Grammy-winning singer/songwriter who does this country/folk/Americana thing, she was part of a band called Birds of Chicago, she’s worked with Jason Isbell, she’s worked with Brandi Carlile, she’s fucking great. She also participated in the Black Opry, which is … UH OH! Hold on to your shrinking nuts, MAGA, she’s a Black country star! Turns out there were a bunch of them even BEFORE Beyoncé personally murdered all the Republican white supremacist feelings by doing some country-fied music! (RELATED: Did Bey record “Jolene” for her record and is Dolly Parton excited about it? Sounds like it!)
Brandi Carlile, mentioned above, she is the ridiculously talented singer/songwriter who appears to be best friends with every artist she ever meets, including when she meets her heroes like Joni Mitchell and Elton John. (See: that Grammy performance. Also see: that she and Elton apparently just made a record together.) If we start typing about Brandi this will just be a post about Brandi, because — if you may spare us a self-referential moment — we have personally been listening to her for well over a decade, since the beginning, seen her in the smallest rooms, and we could not be more thrilled that her career has taken this turn.
Gloria Johnson, she is a Tennessee politician — she’s from Knoxville — who hasn’t bothered to make any records, is she even Tennessean? But she is running against Marsha Blackburn for the Senate, and Marsha Blackburn is a piece of shit, so that’s cool. Oh, also she was one of the Tennessee Three, the ones who famously got in trouble for speaking when the white men were speaking, to draw attention to gun violence. (That’s not the official reason the white supremacists gave, but fuck them.) Her two colleagues Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were expelled from the Tennessee House. (They later found their way back in, thanks to VOTERS.)
When Johnson was asked why the other two were expelled and she was not, she said, “I’ll answer your question; it might have to do with the color of our skin.”
Anyway, what do these three have in common?
Well, Russell got together a whole bunch of her best musical friends, including Carlile, and they made a song called “Tennessee Rise,” and the proceeds are going to Gloria Johnson’s campaign, and just in general to support social justice in the state. (That’s also where you can donate, should you be interested.)
Together, this lineup is calling itself the Tennessee Freedom Singers, and oh what a lineup it is.
On top of Russell and Carlile, there are Brittany Howard, Amanda Shires, Brittney Spencer, Emmylou Harris, Maren Morris, Katie Pruitt, Langhorne Slim, Mary Gauthier, Fancy Hagood, Brooke Eden, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Elizabeth Cook, Erin Rae, Meghan Linsey, Ruby Amanfu, Devon Gilfillian, Mya Byrne, Jaimee Harris, Julie Williams, Kam Franklin, Kyshona Armstrong, Lilly Winwood, Meghan McCormick, MORGXN, Paul McDonald, Phillip-Michael Scales, Sam Ashworth, Sara Van Buskirk, Shelly Colvin, Tre Burt and Wade Sapp. (List copy/pasted from Variety.)
We regret to inform white MAGA men that a number of those are Black woman country artists and they are all awesome and you can all go fuck yourselves.
Here’s the song, which is really great, and was written by Russell and her husband, JT Nero. Below we’ll stick the lyrics:
Those lyrics:
Hello California Morning, Hello Mississippi Dawn.
Tennessee Rise, the sleep out of your eyes
You thought tomorrow’d never come
How you wanna ride this wave mmmmm
Depends what frequency you’re on
Go and make yourself known
I got joy in my heart this morning
I got trouble on my mind
Yes my people know how to feel two ways
About something at the very same time
Yeah the joy’s for the new day coming
Yeah the trouble’s for that too
Cause we’ve come so far / sooo far
But there’s so much left to do.
Hello California Morning, Hello Mississippi Dawn.
Tennessee Rise, the sleep out of your eyes
You thought tomorrow’d never come
How you wanna ride this wave mmmmm
Depends what frequency you’re on
Go and make yourself known
Tomorrow knows their own
Oh the Freedom Riders calling
Told us all to carry on
To be the ones, to be the ones
We shall not be overcome
Oh that long long Arc of Justice
That long long Arc of Peace
We Trouble these waters to be released
Come together now Tennessee
Oh The Trail of Tears is still rolling
Ole Tennessee waltzing in blood
My daughter can’t sleep for the nightmares
Every night she’s gunned down at school
Everyday she sings her wild anthems
She beats her fears out on her drums
Now she’s a wolf cub yeah she’s Harriet Tubman
Can we be brave as our children?
Hello California Morning, Hello Mississippi Dawn.
Tennessee rise, the sleep out of our eyes
You thought tomorrow’d never come
How you wanna ride this wave mmmmm
Depends what frequency you’re on
(Go and make yourself known
Tomorrow knows their own ) x 2
By the way, we live in Tennessee, and we hadn’t heard about this, but apparently this isn’t the first time Russell has found herself having run-ins with the embarrassing pig Republican politicians of the state Lege. Look what happened when she won her Grammy earlier this year:
During a routine legislative session, two resolutions were proposed in the Tennessee House to honor both Russell and the band Paramore for their Grammy wins. However, House Republicans objected to the resolution honoring Russell while allowing the one for Paramore to pass. The objection moved the resolution to honor Russell off the legislature’s consent calendar, sending it back to a legislative committee. Due to the consent calendar rules, there was no debate over what objections the Republican lawmakers may have had with honoring Russell. It is not clear if the resolution will ever be approved.
The Republicans’ decision prompted Paramore’s lead singer, Hayley Williams, to call the move “blatant racism.” […]
“Unfortunately, there’s a pattern of behavior that’s pretty blatant,” Russell said. “Whether their issue with me is that I’m Black, or that I’m queer, or that I’m an immigrant to the U.S., I don’t know. Maybe none of the above, but one can speculate that has something to do with it.”
She’s not sure, but says it could have been because she committed the sin of speaking up for Justin Jones, one of the Black representatives of the Tennessee Three who was expelled.
How dare she, right?
Anyway, all these people are cool, Alison Russell is cool, Brandi Carlile is cool, Gloria Johnson is cool, fuck Marsha Blackburn, the end.
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