Once you get past
Charley Pride and Stoney Edwards, you'd be hard-pressed to name an African-American country music star of the '60s and '70s (or any decade, for that matter), but for a brief moment
Linda Martell seemed poised to crack two glass ceilings at once.
Martell was the first African-American woman to sing on the Grand Ole Opry, and she managed to land two singles in the Country & Western Top 40 in 1969 before she quit the music business to raise a family.
Color Me Country was
Martell's first and only album, and while it's by no means a lost classic, it's a fine set of songs from a singer who clearly had the talent for bigger things. The set includes
Martell's versions of "Color Him Father" and "Before the Next Teardrop Falls," both of which hit the Billboard C&W charts, and her rich, smooth voice does wonders with
the Winstons' hit about accepting your new stepdad (which fares well in a subtle C&W arrangement fortified with pedal steel) as well several brokenhearted weepers on board ("I Almost Called Your Name" could almost pass for a classic
Patsy Cline number).
Martell even displays some credible yodeling skills on the leadoff track, "Bad Case of the Blues," and "There Never Was a Time" is a heart-tugging tale of hard times that shows a strong
Merle Haggard influence and shows
Martell could handle a broadly emotional tune without sounding sappy or overly theatrical.
Martell also had a career as an R&B singer, but
Color Me Country clearly aims to sell her to the C&W market, so she doesn't get to show off her soulful side on this set, but as a country vocalist, she was clearly above average, and with better promotion and production (Shelby Singleton, Jr.'s studio skills are average at best), she might have become the female
Charley Pride. That was not to be, but
Color Me Country makes it clear that wasn't because of a lack of talent, and this is a fascinating and entertaining curio from a forgotten country music pioneer. ~ Mark Deming