New ‘For Love & Country’ documentary gives Nashville’s Black artists the microphone

Country music has always been Black music. That’s the idea that a new documentary called For Love & Country explores.

It talks about the industry’s complicated past with race, and who the Music City brand leaves out.

The genre is about telling stories. And this new documentary aims to tell the story from a different perspective.

“We put Black people in a position to tell their own stories,” says Nashville-based journalist and author Andrea Williams.

Williams was a writer and producer on the documentary.

“Country music, because it is so isolated, it exists in this bubble in Nashville,” Williams says. “They do a really good job of keeping people out.”

Lesss go! My first feature length documentary “For Love & Country” on @primevideo April 7th 🤎🙏🏿

My hope is for people to watch this film with a different appreciation for the genre of country music and the talented Black artists who so boldly choose to stand in the light. pic.twitter.com/vGyEvOtZyg

— Joshua Kissi (@JoshuaKissi) March 16, 2022

Williams says For Love & Country was a way to let Black artists take control of the narrative.

It features musicians like Allison Russel, Brittney Spencer and Amythyst Kiah, and it includes perspectives from local figures like criminal court clerk Howard Gentry and historian Amanda Marie Martínez.

The documentary also spotlights the voices of a new generation of Black artists that are challenging the narrative in country music.

Williams recounts how one artist was hesitant to be interviewed by her on set; she says the artist was concerned they might say something negative about the industry that could damage their career. Williams says that interaction is so illustrative of the environment Black artists are working within.

“This is a byproduct of a broken system,” Williams says. “This is what happens when you have told Black people for so very long that they can’t participate at all. Of course now they’re going to think, ‘Well, they’re giving me a shot. I better be on my P’s and Q’s. I better come quietly through the back door and not make too much of a fuss.'”

Williams says she thinks the film shows a side of this industry that Nashville doesn’t always want seen.