Roy S. Johnson: Birmingham was a “black country” overnight. This will not be the last. – al.com

This is a column of opinion.

His cowboy boots were broken, “but I wasn’t.” Des Wilson laughed as he spoke – and he was still recovering.

He was still healing just a few days earlier when he had helped heal a remarkably unique evening in Birmingham. When he restricted the whirlwind of 30 days to collaboration with a homemade songwriter/artist Sabastian (Pynk Beard) Cole to produce Hella Night of Country Music. In these parts, of course, one night of country music is not particularly remarkable or unique. Even Hala Night of Country Music.

Still, it’s: Hella Night of Black Country Music.

Night when Birmingham, raised and educated black country artists, shook mostly black -sold crowds dressed straight by Yelloustoneincluding a cowboy-Ed and rubber in their Boots and hats. He shook the crowd that was swinging, stepped and knew Dang’s words.

Wilson-Sami, he once received the Stevie Wonder Music Scholarship at the University of Alabama in Birmingham-filled and released music videos that scattered through social media, created graphics and helped design the stage and lighting of the Western-thema, who transformed Pearl Room on Field on the regions last Friday night in claim Noir (Expression is fully intended).

Wilson’s body still hurts, but his spirit remained full.

“It was an incredible vibration,” he said, “especially seeing children enjoying and resonating with music and memorizing the lyrics. This is a new wave of creative expression for blacks, from children to elders where we see ourselves in space which we have been taught is not for us.

Call it: a lesson unlocked – and not just because of what penetrates unexpected creative spaces in Birmingham and around the region. The last 12 months have been one year – thehe Year – for black country artists.

Two days after the selling concert in the regions, the global musical power, which is Beyonce, put a shiny sepia bow on the first weekend of the month of black history, becoming the first Black artist to win the album “Grammy for Best Country”. The ground Cowboy Carter also won the album of the year.) Usually the stunned reaction of the artist to the historical victory was so good that it would be a meme if it wasn’t real.

It was just months after Beyonce received Nary nomination for the Country Music Association 2024 for the album, which won the highest debut of each album last year (407,000 units) and breeds of the Renaissance of Black Country Performers, emphasized on a national scale From the likes of Shaboozey and locally in the talent of artists such as Birmingham, Jada Cato (who also appeared last Friday) and Gardndale Thierra Kennedy singer.

Kennedy was presented on two songs “Cowboy Carter” and was among the array of black performers who presented themselves with Beyonce at Christmas at the halftime of NFL’s game in Houston, her hometown. The Street in Netflix, the half -time show attracted 27 million views, more than four times the bigger than the CMA audience in 2024 (6 million).

“You’re not the goalkeepers of a music genre,” Wilson said. “Your validation does not do and do not break anyone.”

Certainly none black. We validate our own. And know all the words.

So the Hella Black Country in Birmingham last week may not be unique for long. Honestly, it should never have been. Black country artists should never be the forgotten thread, the white core of the history of the mosaic history of the genre. It should never be overlooked and rarely invited to his stage.

And there is this: country music should never largely deviate from Afro -American, although it is easy to understand why. It is easy to turn until you are turned. He turned away from something we gave birth.

“You think you don’t like country music, but you do it – you just don’t like the country’s performers you have presented,” Wilson said. “You do not resonate with these artists of the country. Now, [Black] People return again as a country, they can own this and carry it with pride. I have traveled many places and as a south you are called “side” and consider it slur, a stereotype.

“We can have this and remember: Oh, we are a country – Sabastian from Dolomit and in Green County, Alabama. We are Country. Whether I have a pair of J or a pair of boots, I’m still a side and that’s good. “

The appearance of Black Country artists, which boldly embarks on the genre, is a natural evolution of creative expression, Wilson told me. “We have a representation in country music over time,” he said, “but for some reason the black country performers did not receive a mainstream spotlight and no one grabbed it the way Beyonce did. It combines its traditional aesthetics, formula and execution in a new space for it. So, it wasn’t stretch to see Beyonce doing this. “

“As an artist with multinets playing piano, saxophone and drums, I naturally bounced from tools to styles and media of music,” he added. “I get bored and shift. As a creative scene, watching Beyonce resonates with me for the same reason: Okay, you got bored and wanted to move creatively. If they are not shifted, many artists give up because they no longer resonate with their traditional music style. “

The initial moment last Friday night, the moment when Birmingham is a bigger country than you might think came when the Pynk Beard microphone blown up during “My Master Wishes.” The artist was shaken for a few until she realized that the audience had stopped signing the texts.

Call her on Monday she at work

Call her on Sunday, she may be in the church.

Her baby dad got a baby for the weekend

So on Friday she will throw herself

She is a demon in a dress and she is quite in a fendy and she is hell, regardless of

She is my master, wishing and the river does not riseS

Wilson was on stage with his camera. “Making that moment, that was all,” he recalled. “It was just a powerful moment to understand that we were moving from a concept to performing for literally 30 days, and that was the result. To see and feel the amount of support and love in the room, at this point, to see people who know the words of songs who are not even available on streaming platforms, it was beautiful to know that we were able to do this in our city. That meant a lot. And that was that moment, I felt something the city really needed. “

Especially now that the city is fighting to stop the scourge of violence with a weapon and heal its wounds.

On stage in Los Angeles, two nights later, Beyonce said, “Sometimes the genre is a code word to keep us in our place as artists.”

Now this place is Hella Country. Beat your boots.