In the Caribbean, many of us adore Country & Western music, do you recall the St Lucian who even went so far as to dress up as a cowboy in the first Digicel Rising Stars? I was too young when Charley Pride inaugurated black stars into the pantheon of C&W music in Nashville during the late 60’s but I am willing to bet thousands of West Indians cheered no end to see a black man enter and succeed at what was previously a white man’s arena!
Well, that was a man – now a woman is stepping forward and like Charley Pride, she is ignoring all colour issues since Rissi Palmer is a Country Girl as her song declares! Her voice has the sultry snarl of Alannah Myles but the twang and rythm is a pace all of her own! Never heard of her? Then you never visited 1720 Entertainment –
“…I’m a country girl, born and bred.“
Rissi Palmer has the talent to succeed in any genre of music. Equally gifted as a singer, songwriter and entertainer, she was offered a pop record deal by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who have worked with Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson and Boyz II Men. Still, when it came time to pick a direction, she followed her heart and chose country.“It was the hardest decision I have ever made,” she says, “but I decided to pass on the deal because I knew I wanted to do country music.“
You can browse 1720 or look at Rissi’s own site for more details, such as her blatantly honest journal entries (both you and I realise it is her personal blog, but hush, let her talk) –
Radio Tour Day 24: KSKS Fresno, CA & KATM Modesto, CA – July 17, 2007
Current mood: sick
This has been a really long day for me!!!! I started out waking up at 1am and couldn’t sleep, so I decided to go on i-Tunes to see if my EP was there and sure enough it was (and already with a review!!!!) so I decided to download it. That was a really experience, buying my own music for the first time. I sat up with that until I was tired again and then went back to bed. When I got up, the throat tickle that I had the day before had turned into a full blown cough and runny nose, so I immediately started to panic and bought up every medicine in the hotel gift shop.
When we got to KSKS, I was excited and mortified to find that there would be an audience of listeners in addition to the radio staff listening to me perform. I prefaced this performance with a warning about my illness and they seemed to enjoy it anyway in spite of my old smoking lounge singer voice (I tried to compensate with really funny road stories; I also think the pizza helped). The PD Steve Pleshe and MD Jody Jo were extremely funny and kind and the staff made the visit really fun. After the set was over, I signed a few pictures and talked with the listeners. We stayed for a while and laughed with Steve and Jody and then headed out to Modesto.
When we arrived at KATM, we found that the PD, Randy Black aka Bubba, had an emergency at home and had to leave, so he had requested I go on air with the afternoon DJ, Dave Thomas. The interview was fun and Dave asked some great questions. When I went off air, we were told that “Bubba” wanted us to stop by his house before we left town, so sure enough, we drove over to Bubba’s house to say hi. Once that was done, we headed to San Jose.
I started feeling worse so once we arrived at the hotel, Jim and I went to an emergency care clinic where I sat and waited for 4 hours!!!! In those four hours, I saw a small child lick the floor on a dare from his big sister. I thought I was going to throw up as I saw him and I swear it happened in slow motion!!!!!! Anyway, I waited all that time to have a doctor tell me that I have a common cold and that I should take Sudafed and Robitussin (or Tussin as Chris Rock calls it). Nice!!!! So I am here now at my hotel, drinking my Tussin and popping Sudafed, trying to get it together.
If you check Rissi’s MySpace, you can get familiar with her sounds – maybe you can even beg LOVE 104.1 FM to bring back their Construction & Engineering hour of Country & Western Music they ran back in the early 90’s?
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