The singer-songwriter reflects on her groundbreaking journey in country music, the power of representation and how she’s uplifting a new generation of diverse voices
By Leah Berry | Photography by John Michael Simpson
Rissi Palmer vividly recalls weekends spent cleaning the house with her mother, the warm hum of vinyl records setting the soundtrack.
“I distinctly remember listening to Patsy Cline and Chaka Khan records and James Taylor and Phoebe Snow and people like that,” the country music artist says. “That informed my listening to this day, and it also kind of informed the way that I sing.”
Her roots trace back to the Pittsburgh suburbs, but her family relocated to St. Louis when she was 12. She later pursued her studies at DePaul University, but the call of music was too strong to ignore. “I lasted one year before I got my first publishing deal in Nashville,” Rissi says. “I moved to Atlanta and would commute back and forth until [I] finally moved full time to Nashville in 2006 and [was] signed.”
Her marriage in 2010 brought her to North Carolina. Rissi and her then-husband, Bryan Stypmann, called Raleigh home until 2016 when they made the move to Durham.
Despite her diverse musical influences growing up, country music captured her heart. “I loved the stories,” Rissi says. “Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton were my first introductions to this really rich storytelling, and I loved that. I loved the instrumentation; there’s something really intimate about a lot of those records. … You listen to a good country song, you can smell it, you can taste it, you can see it and you can touch it. And that drew me in.”
Rissi credits her first managers – whom she met in high school but, at her mother’s insistence, didn’t start working with until after graduation – with encouraging her to pursue country music despite the industry’s lack of Black artists. “I’m going to be perfectly honest with you, I loved it, but I did notice as I got older that people who look like me were not singing it and they weren’t performing it,” Rissi says. “That caused me to become self-conscious about liking it and knowing it.”
The path Rissi carved in country music has been far from straightforward, with numerous obstacles. “It’s really a matter of fighting good marketing,” she says. “Country music has always been branded as white people’s music or white men’s blues or whatever. … It’s always been a question of my authenticity, like ‘Do I really mean this, or am I just trying to be different?’ …Trying to get people to take me seriously, I think, was the hardest part.”
Still, Rissi made history in 2007 as the first Black female country artist in 19 years to chart on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs with her debut single, “Country Girl.”The achievement marked a milestone moment, but it was tinged with bittersweet reflection for Rissi, who couldn’t help but wonder why it took so long for this milestone to happen again.
“It felt really weird to say that in 2007 a record was being broken for Black people when we were about to have a Black president,” she says.
Rissi’s discography continues to garner widespread recognition from top publications. Her self-titled debut album earned a spot among Spin magazine’s list of the 10 best country albums by Black artists in April 2024, and Rolling Stone named her 2019 album, “Revival,” one of the top 25 country- soul albums of all time in March 2024. These accolades are major achievements in her hard-fought journey, but Rissi acknowledges that Black artists in country music still face an uphill battle.
“On one hand, Black artists have a lot more visibility than they used to,” Rissi says. “There’s also a larger community of Black artists [performing] country music than I was aware of when I was in Nashville … but I don’t think that’s the industry. I just think that that’s what the internet has made possible.
“But … I don’t think much has [truly] changed. Because unfortunately you saw a boom in Black artists being signed in 2020, but nearly all of those artists have been dropped by 2025. … I think we still have a really long way to go.”
Rissi amplifies underrepresented voices in country music through her radio show “Color Me Country,” which can be found on Apple Music.
“I get to talk about the past, the present and the future of artists of color in country music,” she says. “I get to capture a lot of really cool, interesting history; things that a lot of people don’t know. I’m really very proud [and] honored to be the conduit for that.”
Her Color Me Country’s Artist Grant Fund supports this mission of creating more opportunities for artists of color. It’s raised more than $200,000 since 2021, provided 85-plus grants and sent 16 artists of color to London’s Long Road Festival. “Our grantees have gone on to be CMT’s Next Women of Country or perform on Beyonce’’s record.”
Rissi also curates The Wavemakers Series at the Carolina Theatre, celebrating diverse voices and spotlighting emerging talents from myriad backgrounds. Next up, she’ll join indie folk artist Grace Givertz in conversation May 28.
“I love the Carolina Theatre,” she says. “I was always like, ‘God, I hope I’m big enough one day to play there.’ I used to think about [it] all the time. I think a lot of artists feel that … there’s this purgatory sometimes when [you’re on the brink of success] and … you just need that one thing. That’s what the series is for: People may not necessarily know your name [now], but eventually they will.”
Rissi wrapped up her nationwide Trailblazing Women of Country Tour – a tribute to pioneering women of the genre – in early April 2025, and she hasn’t slowed down since. Her new EP, “Perspectives,” was released Feb. 6 as an amuse-bouche before her album “Survivor’s Joy” drops later this year. It features songs including “Old Black Southern Woman,” “Good to Me,” “Can You Run?” and “Somebody Somewhere (Don’t Know What He’s Missin’ Tonight).”
Now, she’s bringing that momentum home as she takes the stage for Biscuits & Banjos April 27 at the Durham Performing Arts Center. Ahead of the performance, she joins fellow Durham-based artist Kamara Thomas at The Fruit for an intimate conversation on balancing motherhood, music and advocacy, alongside acoustic selections from Kamara’s catalog. And that’s not all: Rissi also recently shared her story on The Moth Radio Hour’s “Soundtrack to Your Life,” which listeners can access here. Discover all her upcoming shows here.
“I love this place so much,” Rissi says of Durham; she lives downtown, and in her rare free moments, she most enjoys spending time with her daughters, Grace Stypmann, 14, and Nova Stypmann, 6, frequenting faves like The Parlour and Durham Central Park. “The city [has] given me so much as an artist, and [given so much] to my children. It’s really nice to be able to bring this [new festival] to Durham.”
