Daddy B. Nice's

Artist Guide

Cecily Wilborn: Country Styling
#35 ranked Southern Soul Artist


Portrait of Cecily Wilborn: Country Styling  by Daddy B. Nice

"Southern Man "

Cecily Wilborn: Country Styling

Composed by Cecily Wilborn


November 1, 2024

Country Stylin’

Country in southern soul? You either love it or you don’t. And loving it doesn’t mean you don’t love traditional southern soul. It simply means country has elbowed its way into southern soul and enriched it in the same way hiphop (“Hell Naw To The Naw Naw” by Bishop Bullwinkle, “Take Your Time” by Joe Nice & Sean Dolby), funk (“Mr. Sexy Man” by Nellie “Tiger” Travis, “Roll It” by Mr. Sam) and zydeco (“Don’t Mess With My Tu Tu” by Denise LaSalle, “Zydeco Bounce” by T.K. Soul, “Call The Police” by Stephanie McDee) have at first shocked and ultimately enriched the genre in prior eras.

Stan Butler was one of the first to begin experimenting with country styling a few years ago in songs like “My Deaf Brother” and “Mighty Good Woman,” tunes that appeared to be novelties because of their unusual reliance on spoken narratives and hyperbole. They became the most successful recordings of his career. Then, both before and after R&B superstar Beyoncé recorded her country album early in 2024, a flood of country-inspired music including Ciddy Boi P’s “This Is Texas (Beyoncé Reply),” Cecily Wilborn’s “Southern Man” (2023) and Curt The Country Man’s “Back Roads” (early 2024), inundated southern soul, forcing deejays and programmers into some awkward decisions about what constitutes southern soul in the eyes of its audience. That transformation is still roiling southern soul playlists today. This month Daddy B. Nice features four of the most dominant musicians in this new wave of countrified southern soul.

Country Stylin': Featured Artists:


Stan Butler

“Down In The Kountry” (feat. West Love)
“My Deaf Brother”
“Cowboy Ride”
“Mighty Good Woman”

Ciddy Boi P

“This Is Texas (Beyoncé Reply)”
“One More Day”
“Fishing Hole”
“Can I Get It” (feat. Till 1 & Mississippi Hummin’ Boy)

Curt The Country Man (aka GMB Li Curt)

“Back Roads” (feat. Shawty Mac)
“Back Roads” (feat. Marcellus The Singer)
“2 Beers”
“Country Man”

Cecily Wilborn

“Red Cup Blues,”
“Southern Man”
“Southern Man (The Anthem)” feat. West Love
“Living For The Weekend”

Southern Soul Country Style: The Top Singles


1.
”Southern Man”---Cecily Wilborn

2.
”Back Roads”---Curt The Country Man

3.
”Down In The Kuntry”---Stan Butler

4.
”One More Day”---Ciddy Boi P

5.
”Red Cup Blues”---Cecily Wilborn

6.
”This Is Texas”---Ciddy Boi P

7.
”2 Beers”---Curt The Country Man

8.
”Mighty Good Woman”---Stan Butler

9.
”Living For The Weekend”---Cecily Wilborn

10.
”My Deaf Brother”---Stan Butler

************************************************

SouthernSoulRnB.com - Chitlin' Circuit Southern Soul Music Guide


September 21, 2024:

NEW ALBUM ALERT!

Buy Cecily Wilborn's new Kuntry Gurl Playlist album at Apple.

KUNTRY GIRL PLAYLIST TRACK LIST:

1.Living For The Weekend

2
Kuntry Gurl

3
Rocking Chair

4
Nobody But You

5
Backtrack

6
Karma

7
Be Myself

8
Showdown

9
In Da Kuntry

10
In Da Kuntry With My Daddy (feat. Cecil Coleman Sr.)

11.
Red Cup Blues

12.
Party

Daddy B. Nice notes:

See Daddy B. Nice's Profile below.

Listen to all the tracks from Cecily Wilborn's new KUNTRY GIRL PLAYLIST on YouTube.

Listen to all the tracks from Cecily Wilborn's KUNTRY GIRL PLAYLIST album at Spotify.

Sample/Buy Cecily Wilborn's new KUNTRY GIRL PLAYLIST album at Apple.

SouthernSoulRnB.com - Chitlin' Circuit Southern Soul Music Guide

....UNDER CONSTRUCTION...

October 1, 2024:

Daddy B. Nice's Profile:

"Wow!! Never been a country music lover but damn!!"

This is a comment from a YouTube music video for "Back Roads" by Curt The Country Man (aka GMB Li Curt), one of Cecily Wilborn's peers in demolishing the longstanding boundary between southern soul and country music this year. The comment could just as well be the southern soul audience's reaction to Wilborn's own career breakthrough, which has been much more exhaustive and sophisticated than Curt's, beginning with her major hit and signature song "Southern Man," currently viewed over 3 million times on its various YouTube streams (one featuring the popular West Love), followed by a sequence of new singles culminating in the very first southern soul/country hybrid album, Kuntry Gurl Playlist.

"Never been a country music lover" certainly defines my own tastes, with a few isolated exceptions mainly in the rock and roll era, and yet those crossover hits ("Spirit In The Sky," "Wolverton Mountain," "Silver Thread & Golden Needles," "Battle Of New Orleans" and anything from the first two albums by The Band) had huge musical attractions due to their originality. That's similar to the impacts of the singles by Wilborn, Curt The Country Man, Ciddy Boi P and others in 2024. And from a southern soul perspective, this cloning of southern soul and country is really no different than the absorption of zydeco and hip-hop in previous eras. It just seems stranger, like wading through shallow water and encountering a shelf drop-off of deeper water.

I was reminded of my mild aversion to country music as a genre listening to KUNTRY GURL PLAYLIST in its entirety. I found it difficult to enjoy the country formats, track after track, in a long-play collection, as opposed to the individual country-crossover triumphs like "Red Cup Blues" and "Party". Maybe it's this tepidity (antipathy is too strong a word) to country as a whole that makes its influences and techniques all the more exotic when it works in a southern soul context. "Southern Man," which unfortunately isn't included in the set, is dominated by un-country-like piano instrumentation (as is, coincidently, Curt's "Back Roads"). It's the country-style vocals that make the songs unique. And isn't that what makes "Red Cup Blues," perhaps Cecily's most rigorously country project, so powerful?

It's also fascinating to gauge the artists' conceptions of their own work. Do they call it southern soul or do they call it country? Wilborn pointedly abstains from the term "southern soul" in her biographical information, yet uses it constantly in normal conversation. The male artists go with "southern soul" without even thinking about it. Well (you might think) who else is going to play this youthful black country?

What cannot be disputed is that Cecily Wilborn is head-and-shoulders above any of the above-noted male artists in terms of both what she has accomplished and what she is poised to accomplish. Assisted by her husband/producer, she has evolved from an amorphous and tentatively-defined newcomer (a few years ago) into a sharply-etched performer whose every project legitimately attracts attention and streams. She has mastered that indefinable and rarely attainable transformation from unknown into a genuine "brand". She may be bringing a country vibe to southern soul, but she is indisputably a southern soul singer. As she sings in her new single, "Living For The Weekend," "Play me some Johnnie Taylor or some Marvin Sease."


---Daddy B. Nice

--Daddy B. Nice


About Cecily Wilborn: Country Styling

Cecily Wilborn is a native of Marianna, Arkansas. Here is an excerpt from her own bio (2024):

Cecily is an Arkansas artist and Music Production Grad from Full Sail University. Known for her hit single “Southern Man” which she wrote, recorded, and produced on her own and reached 4 million streams worldwide in the first year. She has shared the stage with many celebrities such as King George, West Love, Jeter Jones, and more. A few of her favorite performances come from the BB King’s Stage in Memphis, TN, at the Essence festival in New Orleans, The Apollo in NYC, and the Memphis vs Lakers game at the Fed Ex Forum in Memphis, TN. Her versatility and wide range of musical talents and skills creates a unique blend of Blues, RnB, Country, Pop, Gospel and Southern Flavor. Cecily is making her own way in the industry as an independent artist under the management of her family built brand alongside her husband, JayWil Entertainment. Now partnering with the largest Southern Soul Distributor in the industry, OneRPM, Cecily is preparing to launch her new Album, Kuntry Gurl Playlist, which will include her most recent releases, Party and Red Cup Blues, and collection of new material.

Listen to Ena Esco interviewing Cecily Wilborn: "Rising Star Cecily Wilborn: From Small-Town Arkansas to 4M Streams & Beyond" on YouTube.


Tidbits

1.


Originally published in Daddy B. Nice's Southern Soul Awards (Best of 2023).

January 1, 2024

Best Collaboration:

"He got a smooth walk / He kinda growl when he talk..." Impactful as it was late in 2022, Cecily Wilborn's anthem took off like a second-stage rocket with this timely 2023 pairing.

"Southern Man" ----- Cecily Wilborn & West Love


Listen to Cecily Wilborn & West Love singing "Southern Man" on YouTube.

Buy Cecily Wilborn's single "Southern Man" featuring West Love.

SouthernSoulRnB.com - Chitlin' Circuit Southern Soul Music Guide

2.


Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles For. . .

-------MARCH 2024-------


1. "Red Cup Blues"-----Cecily Wilborn

Mark March 2024 as the month and year when country music invaded and dominated the top ten singles, and none leaped the genre boundaries with the breathtaking ease of Cecily Wilborn's "Red Cup Blues". The recent winner of the 17th Annual (2023) Southern Soul Award for Best Collaboration ("Southern Man" with West Love), Wilborn is also featured in last month's "News & Notes" "Will Southern Soul Deejays Play Country-Western/Southern Soul?" on Daddy B. Nice's Corner.

Listen to Cecily Wilborn singing "Red Cup Blues" on YouTube.

SouthernSoulRnB.com - Chitlin' Circuit Southern Soul Music Guide

3.


February 18, 2024:

Daddy B. Nice's News & Notes

Will Southern Soul Deejays Play Country Western/Southern Soul?

"Texas Hold 'Em," Beyonce's unabashedly country-western-styled dance jam, is generating controversy amongst country music deejays across America. The same thing---in reverse---is happening on a lesser scale in the world of southern soul. I'm not just talking about the preponderance of cowboy hats, "daisy dukes" and boots, horses, trail rides, pickups and musical blending of country themes into southern soul that has been going on now for roughly a decade since Big Yayo's pre-cowboy-hat-wearing "Cowgirl" appeared and a half-decade since Jeter Jones' "Black Horse" officially kicked off the "country-fication" of southern soul. Nor am I even talking about the avalanche of country-styled tunes and titles that have followed, songs like Jus Epik's & Money Waters' "Country Girl," in which country influences both musical and lyrical customize a still sturdy southern soul chassis.

Which brings me to the present moment: the pure country-western vocals of Jeter Jones new "Country Girl" and Cecily Wilborn's "Red Cup Blues". Yepp. Two major artists have crossed the boundary between southern soul and country. All the way. Are they experiments? It's hard to say. Jeter Jones recorded a song that's become a southern soul classic: "My Country Girl". But his new "Country Girl," from the just-released Big Boss EP, is pure country---not least the exaggerated vocal. But even that shocker is surpassed by Cecily Wilborn's new song, "Red Cup Blues," in which she outdoes Beyonce in her genuine transformation into a bonafide country singer. So much so that your Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 Singles for March might sound more like a country-western chart than southern soul. As if that weren't enough, the producer for "Red Cup Blues" is Kang 803, King George's producer and the hottest southern soul producer of the moment. If you remember, Kang 803 inserted delicate steel guitar fillips into King George's #1 song of 2023, "Grown Man (Say She Need Somebody"). And they---he and George---used to be rappers!

I recently stumbled upon a song that came out in the latter part of 2023 called
"Back Roads" by GMB Li Curt and ShawtyMac, just a couple of the black artists including K.D. Conner, Curt The Countryman and Countryboi Tye currently recording country. Marcellus The Singer actually guests on another version of the song by Curt The Countryman. "Back Roads" is too good to ignore, but I confess to almost feeling guilty enjoying it because it is country, man, so much so that when the rap verse came in I felt a twinge of relief because, ironically, the rap validated it as a contemporary southern soul song!

As long as there has been country music there have been black country artists. The great Ray Charles straddled both genres like a colossus back in my young day. But here's the kicker. These new songs ARE pure country. They're not southern soul. If a new generation of musicians follows suit, you can't really call it southern soul anymore. Or can you?

SouthernSoulRnB.com - Chitlin' Circuit Southern Soul Music Guide


Honorary "B" Side

"Red Cup Blues"


1-5 Star Recommended Tracks
#35 - Red Cup Blues by Cecily Wilborn: Country Styling
5 Stars 5 Stars 5 Stars 5 Stars 5 Stars 
Red Cup Blues
CD: Kuntry Girl Playlist
Label: Cecily Wilborn
Sample or Buy
Kuntry Girl Playlist
 
#35 - Living For The Weekend by Cecily Wilborn: Country Styling
5 Stars 5 Stars 5 Stars 5 Stars 5 Stars 
Living For The Weekend
CD: Kuntry Girl Playlist
Label: Cecily Wilborn
Sample or Buy
Kuntry Girl Playlist
 
#35 - Nobody But You by Cecily Wilborn: Country Styling
5 Stars 5 Stars 5 Stars 5 Stars 5 Stars 
Nobody But You
CD: Kuntry Girl Playlist
Label: Cecily Wilborn
 
#35 - Party by Cecily Wilborn: Country Styling
5 Stars 5 Stars 5 Stars 5 Stars 5 Stars 
Party
CD: Kuntry Girl Playlist
Label: Cecily Wilborn
Sample or Buy
Kuntry Girl Playlist
 
#35 - You Baby (w/ Marcellus The Singer) by Cecily Wilborn: Country Styling
5 Stars 5 Stars 5 Stars 5 Stars 5 Stars 
You Baby (w/ Marcellus The Singer)
CD: Calling All Crack Babies (w/ Marcellus The Singer)
Label: Marcellus Music Co.
 
#35 - Get Loose feat. Bre Wooten by Cecily Wilborn: Country Styling
4 Stars 4 Stars 4 Stars 4 Stars 
Get Loose feat. Bre Wooten
CD: Get Loose (The Single)
Label: Cecily Wilborn
Sample or Buy
Get Loose (The Single)
 
#35 - Karma by Cecily Wilborn: Country Styling
4 Stars 4 Stars 4 Stars 4 Stars 
Karma
CD: Kuntry Girl Playlist
Label: Cecily Wilborn
Sample or Buy
Kuntry Girl Playlist
 
#35 - Pickup Truck by Cecily Wilborn: Country Styling
4 Stars 4 Stars 4 Stars 4 Stars 
Pickup Truck
CD: The Love Notes
Label: Cecily Wilborn
Sample or Buy
The Love Notes
 


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