Rebel Country's Francis Whately and Breland On the Evolution of Country and The Fight For Acceptance

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Our Entertainment Editor spoke to director Francis Whately and country artist Brelandto learn more about the documentary Rebel Country, Black country singers fight for accpetance, the evolution of country music, the importance of diverse country singers and more.
Country music, as Richard Nixon said in his (in)famous address at the Grand Ole Opry in 1974, is a uniquely American genre, formed here and nowhere else. So why doesn’t the face of country reflect the diversity of the nation? That question is both asked and answered in this timely and urgent film. Rebel Country exposes the diverse roots of country music, reclaiming the contributions of Black and Mexican-American musicians and uncovering the history of segregation and censorship that has made so-called “bro country” the norm in Nashville.
But all of that is changing as LGBTQ+ performers, as well as women artists and artists of color, are claiming their place in country music. Rebel Country has the electric atmosphere of a documentary that’s being made in the right place at the right time, an excitement that’s supercharged by musical performances from iconoclasts like Lainey Wilson, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Jelly Roll, Blanco Brown, Jake Blount, Rissi Palmer, Frank Ray, Brooke Eden, Sam Williams, BRELAND and Lindsay Ell.-