When poet of the pillowcase Leon Bridges was promoting his Gold-Diggers Sound album in 2021, he told the Guardian he wanted to become one of the few black artists making country music. “All I need is time,” he said. Well, time is always running away, and black country has since gone mainstream without Bridges’s input.
Black country star Shaboozey’s A Bar Song (Tipsy) was the American song of the summer. Still No 1 in the US singles charts after 12 weeks, it’s also topped Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart for the past four months. Shaboozey is the only black man allowed to head the country chart in its 80-year history – Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road was excluded for reasons too racist to list here – and only the second black artist, after Beyoncé took Texas Hold ‘Em top in February.
