If you’ve been listening to the radio or watching the charts, you may think Black artists are having a “moment” in country music. Shaboozey is breaking records and sitting pretty on the top of the charts with his hit song “Tipsy.” Beyoncé — one of the most famous people on Earth, not to mention in popular music — released Cowboy Carter this year, a dive into country that spun out as many hits as think pieces.

“It has been a roller coaster of a year,” Holly G., founder of Black Opry tells PAPER, calling in from her home in Nashville, Tennessee. Holly founded the touring platform (and now label) during the pandemic, initially as a way to connect other country music fans who felt alone in the genre. When I ask her thoughts on the current state of country music, especially in whether the shine of stars like Beyoncé is helping the cause of Black artists in the genre, the answer is a bit complicated. “There are so many eyes turning towards country music and the Black artists participating in country music. But it hasn’t had the impact you’d think it would have. Also, with larger celebrities in the space, it makes it harder for emerging artists to move forward in a way that we’ve been working towards for a long time.”

At its core, country doesn’t operate like other genres, Holly explains. “If the same context would happen in any other genre, the attention would help,” she says. “For example, with Beyoncé got on the radio… it’s been so hard for Black women to get on the radio in Country. When [researcher, PHD, Jada Watson] did her report in 2020, it was .09% of spins for Black women on Country radio. So, when you have someone who is a global celebrity, they don’t have a choice but to play that Black woman. But the follow-up to that is: ‘Now we’ve done it, leave us alone.’ For them, it wasn’t an open door. It was an opportunity to placate the people who’ve been trying to get through that door.”

In her experience, the floodgates haven’t been opened for more Black women on Country radio; in fact, “there are less opportunities for artist of color because whatever one Black woman they would’ve played for the year, that spot has gone to her and they feel like there’s no more work to do.” To be clear, Holly’s strongly believes all artists should be able to make “any music they want to,” but that there’s an onus on the music industry to change the structural issues within the genre.

“At my core, I don’t believe the mainstream industry is going to shift in a way to provide the type of equity we’re looking for in a reasonable amount of time,” Holly says. It’s a massive undertaking that no one person could take on by themselves. Still, Black Opry is doing its part to push the needle forward. “I try to spend an equal amount of time advocating for change in the industry, even when it feels futile. time in the industry advocating for change,” she says. “But I think the more viable solution is for us to build things that don’t depend on that system.”

Black Opry hopes to build some of those equitable systems, structures and ways of making money that have historically been unavailable to Black artist. “We’re no seeing that even a global celebrity [like Beyoncé] there are certain doors that she can’t break down in this industry. If she can’t do it… I’m not delusional,” Holly laughs. “The more effective path to success for these artists is for everyone to come together and create structures that can help these artists flourish outside of that.”

Black Opry came about naturally but also accidentally for Holly. During the pandemic, she was looking for like-minded individuals to share in the genre she knew and loved. “I was just a really big fan of Country music since I was little, it was the only thing I wanted to listen to,” she says. “Summer of 2020, when we were all locked inside and trying to figure out what the world meant, that was when I finally got to a point where I was like, ‘I can’t ignore the fact any longer that this music I love, this space that I’m really interested in, doesn’t seem to want me to be a part of it. So, it was initially about finding community. I was hoping I wasn’t the only Black person who was interested in Country music, so I launched Black Opry as a blog to find people who had more in common with me.”

Holly was a flight attendant at the time with no connection to the music industry. So, with just a desire to connect, the pieces started falling into place organically: “Every good thing that’s happened has come to me. I’ve had to make decisions as things go because I didn’t have the foresight to look this far ahead.” In April 2021, Black Opry launched as a blog. Then, through chats online, it went from URL to IRL, as they all decided to meet in Nashville for that year’s Americana fest. They got an Airbnb with 30 or 40 people – thus, the Black Opry house was born.

“You didn’t have to be Black to come, but you had to respect Black people to show up,” Holly says. People from all sides of the industry did show up, with different identities and backgrounds. “At one point someone showed up and they said, ‘I know I’m not Black but I’m trans and I don’t have a safe place to stay, can I stay with you guys.’ Moments like that are some important to me.”

They passed around guitars; moments and clips from the house started to go viral; NPR wrote up a story on the house. One of the artists who was at the house had a show in the coming weeks and when the persons he was meant to play with canceled, she knew exactly who to contact. “She was like, ‘Do you think we can do on stage what we did at the house?’” Holly recalls. She called up some of the other artists who’d been there and everybody was game. They went to New York and did their first show. “When we announced that show so a many other venues reached out that I had to get a booking agent,” Holly says. “I didn’t know how to book shows. I had zero knowledge or frame of reference.” Like that, they started booking the tour and they’ve been “going ever since.”

Next month, that tour stops in Greenville, South Carolina, for the annual Fall For Greenville Festival. The festival was slated for October, but following Hurricane Helene’s destruction of North and South Carolina, the beer, wine and music festival has been moved to November 8 to 10. “On this show we’ve got Justin Reid and Nikki Morgan, who are actually siblings. I love being able to get them on tour together. We’ve also got Grace Givertz and Tylar Bryant. They were both in our Black Opry residency,” Holly says, nodding to the residency they run with station WXPN that supports the creative development of Black performers in Americana.

“One of the things that special about how we do our shows is that we do writers rounds. They’re more popular in Nashville than the rest of the country,” she says. “We have everybody on stage at the same time and they take turns singing their songs. You get to really see the camaraderie. You get to see this really cool interaction and community that you don’t get to see. Previously the thought in Country was that there could only be one successful queer person, one successful Black person, so we just take that and pull them all on stage like, here’s your proof. Also, everyone sounds so different. It’s also nice to see the diversity in the Black community.”

Photography: Getty Images, Amanda Lopez