SOMETHING OLD
Cleveland Francis - The Willow Tree
1970
Cleve Francis was born in Jennings, Louisiana in 1945 and is still active. Chances are, you haven't heard his music, but I do believe you'll feel something in your heart as soon as you do (and not because he doubles as a cardiologist!).
The Willow Tree is a gorgeous folk song, which is why I felt it was essential to include during this month's Black History Month features. If you were to go up to one hundred people on the street and ask them to name their favorite 1960s folk musicians, there's an almost microscopic chance that anyone would venture to name a Black artist. It isn't as if those artists were disinterested in folk music, but American music was as segregated as the country it lived in. As Francis said himself, "if you were black, you played blues or soul music … I wanted to play folk music." He ended up coining the term "soulfolk," based on the deep, stirring voice he blended with folky acoustic guitars and song structures. In the 80s, he even ended up venturing past folk into a semi-successful country career! A massive feat that no doubt is embedded into the significance of later projects like Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter.
His songs grappled with his experience as a young Black man in the segregated south, and his hope for a better America in the wake of the civil rights movement. That hope is palpable in this truly beautiful song.
Cleveland Francis - The Willow Tree
1970
Cleve Francis was born in Jennings, Louisiana in 1945 and is still active. Chances are, you haven't heard his music, but I do believe you'll feel something in your heart as soon as you do (and not because he doubles as a cardiologist!).
The Willow Tree is a gorgeous folk song, which is why I felt it was essential to include during this month's Black History Month features. If you were to go up to one hundred people on the street and ask them to name their favorite 1960s folk musicians, there's an almost microscopic chance that anyone would venture to name a Black artist. It isn't as if those artists were disinterested in folk music, but American music was as segregated as the country it lived in. As Francis said himself, "if you were black, you played blues or soul music … I wanted to play folk music." He ended up coining the term "soulfolk," based on the deep, stirring voice he blended with folky acoustic guitars and song structures. In the 80s, he even ended up venturing past folk into a semi-successful country career! A massive feat that no doubt is embedded into the significance of later projects like Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter.
His songs grappled with his experience as a young Black man in the segregated south, and his hope for a better America in the wake of the civil rights movement. That hope is palpable in this truly beautiful song.
SOMETHING NEW
Yaya Bey - Blue
February 18th, 2026
Yaya Bey - Blue
February 18th, 2026
Queens R&B artist Yaya Bey's latest single comes out in anticipation of Fidelity, her upcoming album to be released on April 17th.
Blue carries a firm but loving wake-up call for the common struggles so many of us endure. When something is holding you back, when you're making excuses, when you run so far away from yourself you end up trying to fly above everyone else, yet you try to believe that everyone else can fix you... Yaya Bey tells you to slow down and look inwards, because the only cure is you.
She recognizes that these behaviors are part of a discomfort with who you are and a deep sadness: a blueness. A lyric that almost sounds like lazy writing at first, baby you look blue / and baby, the sky is too, is actually rather touching. While she does also say to get "over yourself," she manages to say the same thing here in a different way. That's not to say the song is a scathing and shaming criticism, it's not. I sense that Yaya Bey has often felt blue, too, but knows the only way out is through.
There's a certainly likely added layer that the song is addressed to herself.
Her stunning alto voice alongside a calming and tight R&B groove is a guiding voice in a time of chaos.
She recognizes that these behaviors are part of a discomfort with who you are and a deep sadness: a blueness. A lyric that almost sounds like lazy writing at first, baby you look blue / and baby, the sky is too, is actually rather touching. While she does also say to get "over yourself," she manages to say the same thing here in a different way. That's not to say the song is a scathing and shaming criticism, it's not. I sense that Yaya Bey has often felt blue, too, but knows the only way out is through.
There's a certainly likely added layer that the song is addressed to herself.
Her stunning alto voice alongside a calming and tight R&B groove is a guiding voice in a time of chaos.
SOMETHING BORROWED
Donny Hathaway - What’s Going On (Marvin Gaye)
1972
Donny Hathaway - What’s Going On (Marvin Gaye)
1972
Marvin Gaye's What's Going On requires no introduction. Nurturing his own sound and lyrics separate from Motown's binary structure of either songs about feel-good love or tear-jerking heartbreak, Gaye saw the world around him and put it into music with one of the most famous songs and albums ever recorded.
The legendary Donny Hathaway, no stranger to the lyrical content such as watching his "brothers" face police brutality and get shipped off to war, performed the song live at The Troubador in Los Angeles.
The legendary Donny Hathaway, no stranger to the lyrical content such as watching his "brothers" face police brutality and get shipped off to war, performed the song live at The Troubador in Los Angeles.
This live version has a delicious electric keys solo by Hathaway himself alongside a superb rhythm section, which would have made this worth including alone. His creative freedom breathes effortlessly, as if he were the one who wrote it.
It's Donny Hathaway's voice, though, that makes him impossible to exclude this month. Hathaway was only 33 years old when he met his tragic death, which marked one of the deepest losses in all of music history. There has never and never will be another voice like his, and it will always be one of my all-time favorites. I could listen to his richness twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. The rousing applause the end of this performance says it all.
SOMETHING... BLUES
Blind Willie Johnson - John The Revelator
1930
Blind Willie Johnson - John The Revelator
1930
I would be beyond remiss to celebrate Black History Month without honoring blues music.
Blind Willie Johnson's John The Revelator is an ideal example for its strong biblical and gospel roots. There would be no blues without gospel; no folk/rock/Rhythm & Blues without blues; no hip hop without R&B... you get the point, right? It's not to say that all of music would have ceased to exist had Black men like Blind Willie Johnson pick up a guitar, but music as we know it would have not been what it is. Is it even worth imagining?
Blind Willie Johnson's John The Revelator is an ideal example for its strong biblical and gospel roots. There would be no blues without gospel; no folk/rock/Rhythm & Blues without blues; no hip hop without R&B... you get the point, right? It's not to say that all of music would have ceased to exist had Black men like Blind Willie Johnson pick up a guitar, but music as we know it would have not been what it is. Is it even worth imagining?
Invoking John of Patmos, author of the Book of Revelations, the song features a call & response style with the female voice of Willie B. Harris, who may have been his wife. Just their two voices and a guitar manages to create an extremely lush sound. Thirty or so years later, blues legend Son House ended up stripping it down even further in an a cappella version, whereas rock groups like Depeche Mode and The White Stripes built upon it further another thirty years on.
Once again, Happy Black History Month!