"Southern Man "
Cecily Wilborn: Country Styling
Composed by Cecily Wilborn
November 1, 2024
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.
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”
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
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September 21, 2024:
See Daddy B. Nice's Profile below.
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. "Red Cup Blues"-----Cecily Wilborn
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!
Honorary "B" Side
"Red Cup Blues"
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