Color Me Country

Linda Martell was one of country music's first commercially successful black performers. She was also the first black female performer to sing at the Grand Ole Opry.^[2] Originally, Martell made an unsuccessful attempt as an R&B performer in the early 1960s. In the latter half of the decade, she met William "Duke" Rayner, who believed in her potential for a career in country music. Through a meeting with producer Shelby Singleton, Martell signed a recording contract with Plantation Records in May 1969 and began recording her first album thereafter.^[3] Under the production of Singleton, Color Me Country was recorded in 1969 at Singleton Sound Studios, located in Nashville, Tennessee. All of the album's tracks were cut in a single work day that altogether took 12 hours to complete.^[1][4]

The album contained a total of eleven tracks,^[1] with five songs on side one and six on side two.^[4] On the opening track, "Bad Case of the Blues", Martell can be heard yodeling. Meanwhile, other tracks, such as "I Almost Called Your Name", were cut in a ballad style.^[1] Its closing track, "Before the Next Teardrop Falls", was a cover that would later be made most commercially successful by Freddy Fender.^[3] According to Rolling Stone, Singleton told Martell what songs to record and how to record them. He had obtained a copy of the Winstons' pop hit, "Color Him Father", and told her to record it.^[3]

Color Me Country was released in August 1970 on Plantation Records. It was Martell's only major release in her career. Color Me Country spent two weeks on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, peaking at number 40 in October 1970.^[5]

Three singles were spawned from the album; its first was Martell's cover of "Color Him Father", issued in July 1969.^[6] The single spent ten weeks on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and peaked at number 22 on the list in September 1969.^[7] It was Martell's highest-charting single release on the country songs chart. In November 1969, Martell's cover of "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" was issued as the record's second single.^[6] The song spent eight weeks on the Billboard country chart and peaked at number 33 in January 1970.^[8] "Bad Case of the Blues" was issued as the third single in February 1970.^[6] Spending six weeks on the country chart, it peaked at number 58 two months later.^[9] It was also Martell's last charting single. The final single was "You're Crying Boy, Crying"; issued in November 1970, it did not chart.^[6]

In 2014, the album was released on CD via Real Gone Music.^[10] It was later reissued to digital and streaming services in the 2010s, including Apple Music.^[11]

More information Review scores, Source ...

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Pitchfork	7.5/10[12]

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Color Me Country received positive reviews from music critics and journalists following its release. It was first reviewed in September 1970 by Billboard magazine, who called Martell "the female Charley Pride". Writers also found that she had a musical style that fit country music and they highlighted the tracks "Color Him Father", "Bad Case of the Blues" and "The Wedding Cake".^[13]

Retrospectives were also positive. Mark Deming of AllMusic rated the album three and a half stars, finding her to be a country performer who seemed to have never reached her full potential: "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," he concluded.^[1] David Browne of Rolling Stone called the album's production to be "lean and spunky, making her sound like the equal of Loretta Lynn or Tammy Wynette".^[3] A 2023 review from Lawrence Burney of Pitchfork described it as "a lovely but tragic record" on which "Martell's singing is sweet [and] mellifluous", although found that "the umph in her voice on songs with the Anglos" is not present.^[12]

All tracks written by Margaret Lewis and Myra Smith, except where noted.

All credits are adapted from AllMusic and are from the 2014 version of Color Me Country.^[14]

Musical and technical personnel

• Gordon Anderson – reissue producer
• Bill Dahl – liner notes
• Tom Kline – reissue design
• Linda Martell – lead vocals
• Mike Milchner – remastering
• Shelby Singleton – producer
• Joe Venneri – engineer