Linda Martell achieved a monumental breakthrough in American music when she became the first Black woman to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. Despite possessing a vocal prowess that propelled her 1969 debut single, “Color Him Father”, to number 22 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, her tenure in the Nashville establishment was abruptly curtailed by systemic racism. Her 1970 album, Color Me Country, remains her sole studio release, a landmark artefact that only recently received mainstream acknowledgement after Beyoncé featured Martell on her 2024 album Cowboy Carter.
Born Thelma Bynem on June 4, 1941, in Leesville, South Carolina, Martell’s musical foundation was established in the St. Mark Baptist Church, where she began singing with her siblings at age five. While her father, Clarence Bynem, was a devoted fan of country music, Martell’s early professional career leaned towards rhythm and blues. As a teenager, she formed an R&B group called The Anglos with her sister and a cousin, performing locally across the South.
The trajectory of her career shifted dramatically during a 1969 performance at the Charleston Air Force Base. An impromptu decision to incorporate country songs into her R&B set caught the attention of producer Duke Rayner. Rayner facilitated her move to Nashville, introducing her to Shelby Singleton, the executive of Plantation Records. Singleton immediately recorded Martell’s country-infused rendition of The Winstons’ R&B hit “Color Him Father”. Within weeks, the track surged to number 22 on the Billboard country charts. This achievement set a record for the highest-charting single by a Black female country artist – a milestone that stood unbroken for 55 years until Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” topped the charts in 2024.
Following the success of her debut single, Martell broke one of Nashville’s most entrenched racial barriers. In August 1969, she took the stage at the Ryman Auditorium, becoming the first Black female artist to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. She would go on to perform at the historic venue a total of twelve times. Her debut LP, Color Me Country, was released in August 1970, capitalising on her chart success and showcasing her distinctive yodelling technique and emotive vocal delivery.
However, the commercial country music infrastructure of the 1970s proved intensely hostile. Martell faced overt racism on tour, enduring heckling from audiences, cancelled bookings, and segregated facilities. The situation deteriorated further behind the scenes. Her relationship with Shelby Singleton soured when he reportedly refused to release further material, shifting his promotional resources to other artists. According to historical accounts, Singleton ultimately blacklisted her from recording with competing labels. By 1974, stifled by restrictive contracts and industry gatekeeping, Martell abandoned her country music career entirely, returning to South Carolina to raise her children and work in public education.
For decades, Martell’s contributions to country music remained an obscure footnote. The landscape of country music, heavily focused on white artists, left little room for her legacy, even as modern acts like Luke Combs began selling out international venues and country artists began headlining major UK summer festivals. The structural inequalities that forced Martell out of Nashville eventually sparked subsequent initiatives, such as the Color Me Country Artist Grant Fund established by Rissi Palmer. Named after Martell’s album, the fund aims to support underrepresented Black, Indigenous, and artists of colour in the genre.
A renewed wave of recognition arrived in the 2020s, correcting the historical amnesia surrounding her career. The release of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter in 2024 brought Martell directly into contemporary pop culture conversations, intertwining her legacy with how pop culture shapes our lives and our understanding of music history. Martell provided spoken-word interludes on the album, introducing the track “Ya Ya” and receiving a dedicated track titled “The Linda Martell Show”. This high-profile inclusion exposed her foundational work to a global audience, prompting a resurgence of interest in Color Me Country and vindicating the talent of a vocalist who was systematically sidelined by the industry she sought to enrich.
