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3. Tina Turner: “Bayou Song”
Released in 1974, Tina Turner’s first solo album introduced its cowgirl bona fides (and its radiant sensuality) proper there within the title: “Tina Turns the Country On!” The album featured Turner’s reworkings of twangy tunes like Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through the Night” and Bob Dylan’s “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You,” plus this smoldering unique, penned for Turner by the songwriter P.J. Morse.
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4. Rissi Palmer: “Country Girl”
“It’s a way of thinking, irrespective of the place you’re from,” Rissi Palmer sings on this upbeat 2007 single, which playfully referred to as for a extra inclusive definition of “nation.” The video obtained important airplay on CMT, and when “Country Girl” hit Billboard’s Hot Country Songs, Palmer turned the primary Black lady to look on the chart in 20 years.
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5. The Pointer Sisters: “Fairytale”
Here’s an underappreciated gem from the Pointer Sisters — yep, these Pointer Sisters. Known extra for his or her pop and R&B hits, the lady group made the occasional foray into nation music, although by no means extra efficiently than on this lushly organized 1974 single. “Fairytale” hit No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and took residence a Grammy for finest nation vocal efficiency by a duo or group, making the Pointer Sisters the primary — and nonetheless the one — Black girls to win a Grammy in a rustic class.
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6. Valerie June: “Workin’ Woman Blues”
The Tennessee-born singer-songwriter Valerie June calls her unclassifiably distinctive mix of musical stylings “natural moonshine roots music.” You can hear its singular magic on this bluesy single from her 2013 album “Pushin’ Against a Stone,” which celebrates the undersung work finished by generations of ladies.
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7. Brittney Spencer: “I Got Time”
Brittney Spencer, 35, labored as a vocal coach and a background singer earlier than she lastly broke via as a solo artist a number of years in the past. This January she launched her debut full-length album, the humorously named “My Stupid Life.” This laid-back observe showcases her eclectic sound, which pulls from pop, nation and gospel. (Spencer’s earliest singing expertise got here in her church choir.) “You wanna drive, I wanna journey,” she sings with a flirty wink. “It’s summertime, I obtained time as we speak.”
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8. Reyna Roberts: “Louisiana”
Reyna Roberts, 26, is one other Black nation artist with a current debut: Her swaggering “Bad Girl Bible, Vol. 1” got here out in September. This stomping single places Roberts’s personal stamp on the outlaw custom and tells the story of a wandering Southern lady: “Just like smoke, she’s right here and gone.”
