Loyola University to Host Award-Winning Author and Songwriter Alice Randall at “My Black Country: Songs & Stories” during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week
The “LIVE AT LOYOLA” event also will feature several new faces of Black Country music, including Leyla McCalla, Dusky Waters, Teena May and Grace Gibson
NEW ORLEANS – The School of Music and Theatre Professions will celebrate New York Times best-selling author and award-winning songwriter Alice Randall at Loyola’s annual “LIVE AT LOYOLA” concert series March 28 at 3:30 p.m., in the NOEW tent outside the Joseph A. Butt, S.J., College of Business at Loyola.
The event, “My Black Country: Songs & Stories,” will honor Randall’s new book, “My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music’s Black Past, Present, and Future,” and companion album, “My Black Country – The Songs of Alice Randall.”
In addition, the event will feature conversation and performances by Teena May and Dusky Waters, the founders of Black Americana Fest; Grace Gibson; Leyla McCalla; and, special guests. Journalist Arthel Neville will return as host of the concert series, which is free and open to the public.
Randall’s book is a vivid telling of Black people's 400-hundred-year history of making country music in America. The companion album – on OH BOY RECORDS, country music star John Prine’s label – features superstars of modern Black Country, including McCalla, a folk musician who played with the Grammy-Award winning string band Carolina Chocolate Drops.
“I’m thrilled to be invited for this conversation and concert at Loyola during NOEW,” Randall said. “There are many little-known New Orleans connections to Black Country, starting with two members of the first family of Black Country, Lil Armstrong and Herb Jeffries, who were catalyzed in their careers by Louis Armstrong. ‘My Black Country’ is a book about erased Black music history and a history of intrepid entrepreneurs.”
Randall is the only Black woman in history to write both a number one country song, Trisha Yearwood's “XXX’s and OOO’s (An American Girl),” and write the treatment for an Academy of Country Music video of the year, Reba McEntire's “Is There Life Out There.”
“In a year where Beyonce earned Record of the Year for her country album and New Orleans hosted its first Black Americana Fest, we’re thrilled to honor the history and future of Black Country music in our city,” said Jonathan McHugh, the Hilton-Baldridge Eminent Scholar/Chair in Music Industry Studies at Loyola. “Partnering with NOEW and the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University expands the audience for our concert series and also showcases these incredible female entrepreneurs during Women’s History Month.”
The event partners Loyola and New Orleans Entrepreneur Week with the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane and offers two great events on each campus. It is sponsored by the Gia Maione Prima Foundation Inc. and the Hilton-Baldridge endowment.
The event is the second in the “LIVE AT LOYOLA” concert series. Loyola launched the series in 2024 by celebrating The Dixie Cups’ classic song, “Chapel of Love,” for its 60th anniversary.