Durham-based country artist Rissi Palmer is hitting the road next month as co-headliner of the Trailblazing Women of Country tour, a tribute to legends Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, and Dolly Parton.
The tour will pair Palmer with Georgia-born vocalist Kristina Train and feature an all-female backing band.
Palmer, currently recording in Nashville, tells the INDY she’s most excited to perform Cline’s hit ballad “Walkin’ After Midnight” and Lynn’s lesser-known lament “Somebody Somewhere.”
“I don’t sound like either singer,” Palmer wrote in an email, “so I’m bringing my own vocal sensibilities to both songs, keeping the meaning of the lyrics in mind.”
“When we think of the mainspring of country music, we’re immediately referencing a Holy Trinity with Dolly, Loretta, and Patsy,” co-headliner Train wrote in a press release. “With each concert on this tour, our group of fantastic women and musicians, along with everyone present in the room, will experience a joyful celebration honoring what these legends have given us.”
The thematic tour, also according to the press release, pays homage to the ways that Cline, Lynn, and Parton offered their “uniquely empowered—and unmistakably female—perspective on issues faced by women of their day” through country music.
The tour announcement comes as Palmer prepares for another major performance closer to home. This April, she’ll take part in Biscuits & Banjos, a three-day festival in downtown Durham celebrating Black roots music. The festival, organized by MacArthur Fellow and Pulitzer Prize winner Rhiannon Giddens, marks the twentieth anniversary of the influential Black Banjo Gathering in Boone that helped spark a revival of multiracial, intergenerational old-time music.
“Rhiannon is doing something really special with this festival,” Palmer wrote in her email.
At the festival, Palmer will present a live version of her Apple Music radio show Color Me Country, featuring her touring band The Smoke as the house band alongside special performances by North Carolina country and Americana artists.
The upcoming tour and festival appearance add to an already momentous period for Palmer, who earned a Grammy nomination in 2022 and was named to Rolling Stone‘s “Future 25” list in 2021. Palmer also plans to release a new album this spring.
The Trailblazing Women of Country tour begins February 20 at the Newberry Opera House in Newberry, South Carolina. Biscuits & Banjos takes place April 25-27 in downtown Durham.
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