From the Book - First Black Privilege Publishing/Atria Books hardcover edition.
Prelude : Back to the studio
What is Black country?. Portrait of a Black man playing an early American banjo ; The birth of Black country
In a Motown cherry tree : Learning to write hillbilly songs. The Supremes sing country at the Copacabana ; Florence Jopkin, erased foremother of Black country
D.C. Daze : Small towns (are smaller for girls). Saved by Lil Hardin and The Johnny Cash show ; Close encounters with trippy hippy country ; Domestic politics ; Seeking the safety of foreign soil in a small Southern town called D.C. ; Dixie Gothic ; Roberta Flack and audacious Black country love ; Swamp Dogg, essital Black country eccentricity ; 1976 bicentennial year Black country
Encountering : The First Family of Black country and other allies
Scaling Music Row citadel : Screaming like a banshee in Belle Meade. Dressing for success at the uniquely quiet Bluebird Café ; Charley Pride at a black-tie banquet in a Nashville ballroom ; Making a power move at the weenie roast ; In the Ryman with Roy Orbison and a chicken dressed up like Johnny Cash ; The Fairfield Four, Black gospel at the Ryman, and hallelujah, my first cut! ; Kossi Gardner, unheralded Black country genius with funeral-organ roots ; Unpacking Opryland (theme park, hotel, stage) cultural war zone ; Midsummer's first hit, the last days of DeFord Bailey, and other victories
Big dreams : Big hits, big mistakes. Quincy Jones and The cosmic colored cowboy ; The capital of Black country, Los Angeles ; The Mayor of Black country, Ray Charles ; Herb Jeffries, the Bronze Buckaroo, rides, sings, and films Apple Valley
The second-best gift my bad mama gave me : Mother Dixie. The Wooten Brothers, the greatest Black country brother band of all time ; Maya Angelou's country cameos ; The thing called Love : A White country movie with Black country denouements ; XXX's and OOO's ; Unexpected consequences
Revived the rails : Cowboys, Pullman porters, and soiled doves. California Zephyr, running with Lil from Bettie ; Iowa : More trains, planes, and automobiles ; Redemption remembered in the Black Northwest ; Vindication, plain but not simple ; The Pointers, the Panthers, the Barbary Coast ; The Coast Starlight, riding a spine of the Pacific, to the City of Angels ; A train whose name should be changed ; Nat Love, cowboy, Porter, memoirist ; The original singing cowboys were Black ; Fresh horses ; Kansas City, Charley Pride, and baseball ; Lil, the territory bands, and letting go
The archive and the Academy : Creating a new country canon. Lil Nas X enters the Academy ; Rissi Palmer enters the archive ; Rhiannon Giddens, creator and curator ; Allison Russell writes a cornerstone for the canon
Far yonder : Beyond Motown and Music City. Linda Martell, a reckoning ; Aretha Franklin, a benediction ; Circling back, DeFord Bailey ; A new Nashville now, Mickey Guyton ; Circling back, Charley Pride ; Circling back, Lil and the lynchpins in a wild woman's town
Encore : A songbook performed in a wild woman's town.
