Country Music: Linda Martell and Mickey Guyton

Lynda Martell

Mickey Guyton

Everyone knows music around the world is known to bring people together as well as tear them apart. Every Genre has its deep and rich history with many people contributing to its growth.  

Today we are going to be looking into the genre of country music and the impact of Linda Martell on the genre. She was an African American woman born in the summer of 1941. She was raised in the church and started singing in the choir at age five. She later developed a love for other genres, especially country, which is the music she and her father bonded over. 

By the late 50s, she was singing in clubs alongside her sister and cousin in a group called the Anglos. They mostly sang R&B and one night Thelma met Charles “Big Saul” Greene. He gave her the name Linda Martell and this led to the Anglos becoming Linda Martell & the Anglos. During the 60s, they recorded some singles in hopes of getting big but had little to no success. This made it easier for them to break up and go their own ways to live their lives.

Linda didn’t want to stop singing and took up performing at an airforce base. She sang country songs and was begged by Duke Rayner to record some music for him. She eventually agreed and he introduced her to Shelby Singleton who was very excited about her and pitched her as a country artist.

 By late 1969, she had signed to Shelby Singleton's record label called Plantation Records by Duke Rayner. She recorded a cover of Color Him Father and this helped build her popularity in the country genre. She became the first African American woman to perform at the Grand Ole Opry and she was invited back several times.  

She had a five-year career in the country music world. Her career was something she wanted for a while but many of her performances were canceled because of her skin color. In some of her performances she had to sing through heckling and name-calling. With the pressure of racism and Shelby Singleton’s lack of support in favor of another Caucasian country singer. This ended her career in the year 1974.  

The racism surrounding her career isn’t the first time or the last time it has been seen in country music. Many in country music avoid the topic by saying it’s a world problem. Racism is a world problem but the country music world refuses to acknowledge the history it has with this issue and the current issues that are being displayed in the genre. For example, Morgan Wallen had a video come out of him using racial slurs in 2020 but this only pushed his album sales up.  

The silence that has been shown by the genre has led to the erasure of many artists like Martell who many didn’t know existed. It has built a standard in the genre of getting rid or anyone or anything that threatens the image of white supremacy that has been imbedded into the genre since the 1920s. Many new African American artist have yet to receive a lot of support from the country world with a few exceptions like Kane Brown.  

An up-and-coming artist in the genre named Mickey Guyton started singing in church at a young age and she is from Arlington, Texas. She was born in the summer of 1983 and grew up listening to country music like Martell. She was the first solo black women country artist to be nominated for a Grammy. She released her first ep in 2015 and has been building her career over the years.  

The silence of the industry has allowed the world to think there is no issue within the world of country music. This recurrence of silence has cast an illusion that country music is more accepting, yet the Morgan Wallen situation happened, and he didn’t face real repercussions.  

When the Morgan Wallen situation happened many rallied and tried to help Mr. Wallen by making comments wondering what country music had come to. As if they were unaware of the history of the genre and the way it has treated many African Americans as unworthy when they tried to join the industry.  

Mickey Guyton went to twitter to release a statement, and many didn’t know how to react to the truth. 

 “When I read comments saying, “this is not who we are” I laugh because this is exactly who country music is.” said Mickey Guyton. “I’ve witnessed it for 10 goddamn years. You guys should just read some of the vile comments hurled at me on a daily basis. It’s a cold hard truth to face but it is the truth.”  

The country music genre has changed little on the inside, but on the outside, it appears to be more accepting. Even though the racial issues ended Martell's career it doesn’t seem to deter the growth of Guyton’s career.  

This issue needs to be addressed and brought to the forefront for the music world to become stronger. With this continued silence, many people are getting hurt directly and indirectly through their careers and personal lives as artists. The constant ignoring of the issue will eventually lead to either the end of country music or the growth of it as an only Caucasian genre. Which would show the world going backward not forward and further hindering the growth of African Americans. 

Listen to Their Music:

Color Him Father: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsNaHdYMTmk

Lay It On Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPHONzPRenI