Country music's history is just as vast and varied as its genre's tastemakers and icons.
However, in Beyoncé's "Cowboy Carter," the mega-sized album acts as a history lesson educating us on the genre's pioneers. On the album, which features country greats like Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson, the Texas pop star also made sure to include Linda Martell. The country music pioneer is featured on the album in two songs: "Spaghettii" and "The Linda Martell Show."
Martell's inclusion in Beyoncé's sprawling journey into country music pays homage to the groundbreaking artist who revolutionized the genre. But Martell has mostly flown under the radar of country music fans and history, remaining as a lost part of crucial music history. Her large cultural impact and her musicianship played a significant role in the '60s and '70s. Most importantly, Martell is a Black country musician who is receiving her flowers decades after she was entirely blackballed by Nashville's overwhelmingly white and racist country music gatekeepers.
Martell's short-lived career began when she began performing with her family members. As a teenager in the '50s, Martell, her sister and her cousin formed a musical trio and began performing at local clubs. Compared to greats like Ronnie Spector, Martell and her group the Anglos released their first single in 1962. Following a string of failed singles, Martell told Rolling Stone in 2020, “We learned that the music business is most difficult, and you can really, really be fleeced.”
Years after the band broke up, Martell finally got her big break. When she was singing at an Air Force base in South Carolina, William “Duke” Rayner, a future music manager who ran a furniture store in Nashville saw her singing and offered to pay for Martell to record a demo. Martell said she blew off his calls because she thought he was "a kook." Eventually, the singer took him up on his offer. Martell was then introduced to Shelby Singleton Jr., who worked A&R at Mercury Records and produced records for Black and white artists.
In 1969, Singleton had convinced Martell to pivot from pop to country. It was a bold move from a Black artist. Even though Black musicians were mostly responsible for the genre's origins, in the 1960s, Black artists had no entryway into country. After Rayner signed her to a management contract and a one-year record deal with Singleton, she immediately recorded a cover of “Color Him Father” by the Winstons.
Her single “Color Him Father” reached No. 22 on the Billboard country music charts. This would be the highest a Black woman would chart for more than a half-century until Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ’Em” hit No. 1 in March. That same year, Martell made her debut at the Grand Ole Opry as the first Black woman to perform in the iconic venue.
In 1970, her album "Color Me Country" cemented the rising star as country's first Black superstar. Despite the success, Martell was subjected her to relentless racist heckling and slurs at her performances. She said at one point she had been booked for a show in Texas, but a promoter canceled it when she showed up and he saw she was Black. Even fans would tell her she didn't sound Black. She was told the only way to survive in the country industry was to get used to the racism, develop thicker skin and ignore the taunts.
"When you’re playing to an all-white audience — because Lord Jesus, they are prejudiced — you learn to not say too much," Martell said. "You can carry it a little too far if you’re correcting somebody. So you learn how not to do that.”
However, it wasn't long before Martell's rising star faded as fast as she appeared on the country scene. In May 1970, her manager sued Martell for not paying him a commission. While it was handled by her record company, Plantation Records, more trouble arose as the company began to promote a white artist, Jannie C. Riley. Martell shared with Rolling Stone that Singleton said he would focus on Riley more than her. Following the tension, Martell left Plantation, and her contract allowed her to sign for another label after it was fulfilled. She began recording with another label when Singleton threatened to sue them, leading to the deal falling apart.
“He blackballed me. You heard the term? Well, he did that. So no one else would record me. It ruined my reputation in country music. Shelby had a lot of power during that time," Martell said.
In 2021, the Country Music Television Awards honored Martell with the Equal Play Award, highlighting the "groundbreaking African American female country vocalist [was finally getting] ‘Sent her flowers’ after a bittersweetly important career."
Beyoncé's efforts to showcase Martell's importance to country music in two songs and having her narrate lines about musical genres and how they make "some feel confined" is a nod and recognition of Martell's struggles and the struggles of many other Black country artists.
