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Attendees of the Americana Music Conference who might have expected a heated debate during a fitting conversation on political activism instead encountered an impressive calm on Sept. 11, as a decidedly progressive panel called for a respectful response to the assassination of a controversial conservative personality.
America was dazed, confused and angry following the Sept. 10 shooting of Charlie Kirk, with people on both sides of the political aisle engaging in familiar verbal attacks online.
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But Americana artists Allison Russell and Margo Price avoided outrage, as Russell expressed empathy for Kirk and other members of the conservative movement responsible for taking rights away from women and immigrants.
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“The news was devastating,” Russell said. “The reaction I found, in some ways, even more devastating. When we lose our moral compass — out of anger, out of vengeance, out of grief — we become that which we repudiate. We become it. So when people say things like, ‘He deserved it,’ that’s not it. We can forgive… We cannot operate from a place of vengeance, of violence, of shame and blame. It just doesn’t work.”
The Americana Music Association announced the panel “Art & Activism” weeks before the convention’s start. Even if Kirk had not been shot, the discussion would still have been appropriate. It was moderated by Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones, D-District 52, who gained national attention as a member of the so-called Tennessee Three, legislators who were punished by the Republican majority for their animated demonstrations in favor of gun regulation following a shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School in 2023. Lawmakers declined to enact any meaningful reform at the time.
Jones has modeled his efforts as an activist and reformer on the work of Civil Rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis, who was among the demonstrators at Nashville lunch counters when sit-ins broke out across the South in 1960.
The city now boasts the National Museum of African-American Music, located on the same block where Lewis boarded a bus for Alabama in 1961 to join the Freedom Rides, employing nonviolent strategies in a key milestone of the movement. While much of mainstream country’s audience, and many of its artists — most of them based in Nashville — are squarely conservative, a good portion of the industry’s executives are determined to expand the genre’s reach among minority populations, including Blacks, Hispanics and the LGBTQ+ community.
“Being in this country music space has been so challenging for me,” Price said. “People tell me that I can’t say things or to tone it down. [But] I think that we are at such a crucial time in the loss of our democracy. You’ve got to be able to sing truth to power. Let’s dream of a better world.”
Russell, an openly gay Black artist adopted by a white supremacist family in Montreal, recalled a visit with extended relatives in Edmonton, Alberta, when she heard Tracy Chapman’s a cappella “Behind the Wall,” a song about domestic abuse featured on the same album as breakthrough hit “Fast Car.” It was the first time that Russell realized she could change the trajectory of her life, and it informed her passion for songs that make a difference in the world.
“Anytime you’re singing a message, it’s kind of like that ‘spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down,’ ” she said, referencing a song from Mary Poppins. “It opens people up to receive, maybe, news that they would not otherwise take into their system.”
Russell referenced Bloody Sunday — a moment in 1965 when Lewis and others were beaten by state troopers while peacefully marching for civil rights in Selma, Ala. — and mentioned meeting an activist from that era who talked about extending forgiveness to his oppressors. Russell said that same spirit is required while progressive forces fight against the erosion of rights that’s taken place in America over the past decade.
“We have to learn to forgive the unforgivable in order to liberate ourselves from these endless cycles of harm and violence,” she said. “It’s the only way.”
Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Woody Guthrie and folk singer Odetta — artists who opposed the Vietnam War, racism and fascists in previous eras — were among those mentioned as inspirations for Price and Russell. Their support of blue-collar communities set an example that the “Art & Activism” panel encouraged today’s musicmakers to follow.
“These are very difficult times,” Jones said. “The saying that ‘democracy dies in darkness’ — I say that creativity dies in isolation, and fascism thrives in both. We are connected for a reason, and I know that we shall overcome.”
During CMA Fest in 2024, K. Michelle introduced herself to a Nashville stadium full of country fans from a small satellite stage at the far end of the venue with “Jack Daniel’s,” a song that embraced bourbon as if it were a fellow human being.
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Her voice was big, her look was bold, the song was clever, and a portion of the 50,000 or so in attendance — largely unfamiliar with K. Michelle and her R&B history — didn’t know quite what to make of her. But she belted out “Jack Daniel’s” with an unrepentant swagger, referencing the city’s honky-tonk district across the river from Nissan Stadium in the process. And she did, in fact, amass some new fans with that first-time exposure.
“It’s a feel record,” she says. “It’s addictive, and those who caught the lyrics, I knew that they would be able to relate with me about ‘Jack Daniel’s.’ So it was really a good moment for me, and just to see people — even after I sang it — in my DMs, to go to Broadway, and people asked about the record. I know that there was something with the record.”
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Long before K. Michelle sang about a romantic relationship with Jack Daniel’s, she had a business relationship with the manufacturer. In 2017, she helped develop a Southern peach cocktail brand, including the packaging, which featured a first-ever gold cap for the bottle. In the process, she became the first Black woman named an ambassador for one of the best-known alcohol trademarks.
“I had a great experience with Jack — not only just loving the product,” she says. “They taught me more about business than I’ve ever learned. Like the song says, ‘Something here’s different, something feels right.’ ”
Her background with Jack Daniel’s the company helped fuel “Jack Daniel’s” the song. K. Michelle was a fan of Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album, and as she dug into the credits, she realized the songs she most liked were written by ERNEST. Her manager set her up with a co-write circa 2021, and when ERNEST came to her house, she ended up recounting her “Jack” history.
“I do jam sessions, so I make sure everybody has food — a lot of food — and we all get comfortable,” K. Michelle says. “I was telling this story, and I was saying that I have something I’ve been saying my whole career, and that’s ‘Jack Daniel’s is the only man I trust.’ That’s been with me for years, so we ended up writing about it from that perspective after I said that line.”
They kicked into it sequentially from the opening verse, with ERNEST describing Nashville’s busy Downtown night scene in conjunction with short, choppy phrases in the initial lines. The pre-chorus became more elongated, while No. 7 was introduced into the plot. No. 7 is, of course, a key part of the Jack label, though listeners can be forgiven if — before they become fully familiar with it — they associate the number with NASCAR drivers.
They segued into a high-energy chorus that starts with stark, descending quarter notes, recognizing in the process how many times the woman has “been let down like a bottle just collecting dust.” Jack offers what she needs — “He keeps me warm, I keep him close” — working its way to the “only man I trust” payoff.
Overall, they pulled together a strong framework for “Jack Daniel’s,” made a simple demo, then let it simmer. Eventually, K. Michelle decided “Jack” was worth finishing, and she called on songwriters Rocky Block (“Cowgirls,” “Man Made a Bar”) and Jordan Dozzi (“Pour Me a Drink”) to bring it home. One of their most important duties was to ensure the listener didn’t know Jack was a whiskey, rather than a guy, in the song’s opening frames.
“We double-checked everything and made sure we didn’t give it away until the chorus,” Dozzi says. “That was definitely intentional.”
K. Michelle was adamant that it needed a bridge — “I just don’t think a record is complete without one,” she says — and they fashioned one around a “shot in the Broadway dark,” pushing the melody to a higher, more challenging peak. “She’s so aware of her voice and not afraid to sing that high and that powerfully,” Dozzi notes. “That’s her just going, ‘Hey, I’m going to sing my ass off here.’ That’s all her.”
Producer Jeff Balding (Megadeth, BeBe Winans) lined up a recording session at Blackbird Studio D, where the goal was to create a track full of intensity. “She wanted it to have a raw feel, to push it,” Balding says, “to really just have some angst to it.”
Guitarist Tom Bukovac developed a 1990s alt-flavored guitar opening with a simple riff that changed the phrasing on the descending melody from the chorus. The rhythm section, bassist Craig Young and drummer Shannon Forrest, borrowed from R&B, with Young playing an active, aerobic part. K. Michelle belted her vocals without restraint.
“The headphones are a huge part of it, making sure we’ve got the right mix,” Balding says. “Once we get that locked in, she doesn’t seem to be shy about just going for it.”
She wanted to give “Jack Daniel’s” every chance to succeed, so she asked Kristian Bush if he had any further production ideas, and they ended up doing more work on it. Guitarist Benji Shanks offered a fiery solo before the bridge and stabbing, descending lines at the end of the chorus.
“We have this awesome little place in Atlanta,” Kristian says. “It’s like a 600-square-foot room with a bathroom in it and a kitchen, and we leave the doors open, and all the high school kids walk by. It’s just a Downtown Atlanta thing, and Benji was in there screaming that lead.”
Brandon Bush also tailored a new Hammond B-3 part to suit K. Michelle’s vocals. “You can control the Hammond in such a way that you figure out where the singer’s actual frequency of their voice is, and you hollow that out on the Hammond so that that frequency doesn’t exist in the instrument,” Kristian says. “Imagine it’s a raft that you can sit in and it buoys you on all sides, but in the middle, you’re down in it. That’s the way you use a Hammond organ for a lot of women’s voices.”
BBR Music Group released “Jack Daniel’s” to digital service providers on Aug. 29, and K. Michelle hopes that her relationship with the song and the manufacturer helps in her efforts to build a relationship with the country fan base.
“I kind of just want to be the bridge,” she says. “Music is the universal language, and I want to bring people together. I always do it through food, music and Jack Daniel’s.”
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