Spirit of Reflection: Brittney Spencer Is Relishing Her Music Moment

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Singer-songwriter Brittney Spencer reflects on holding onto her spirit of newness and relishing this moment in time.

At the top of the year, Brittney Spencer set her intentions to travel. In between tour stops, the country singer planned to take residence in cities all over the world. Starting in London, her favorite city, followed by New Orleans, Atlanta, and ending in Seattle. These are the places she imagined on her nomadic journey.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY JIMMY FONTAINE

However, as the saying goes, “If you want to make God laugh, make plans.” And according to Spencer, God is rolling over in pain (after a series of deep belly laughs) because of how her year has panned out.

In January, she released her debut album, My Stupid Life. “I wanted to have an album that showcases my life, my heart and where I am right now in life,” she says. Her life, which consists of performances at not only country music festivals but festivals of all genres, speaks to the fluidity of the 12-track album. “I like to make universal country music, and when I say that, I mean I want a little bit of something for everybody.”

The next month, she was featured on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter. Spencer, along with Tanner Adell, Tiera Kennedy and Reyna Roberts, collaborated with the icon on “BLACKBIIRD,” a cover of The Beatles’ “Blackbird.” The original song was written by Paul McCartney as an homage to the Little Rock Nine—a group of nine Black teenagers who were the first to integrate an all-white high school in Little Rock, Ark.—and the young Black girls who were barred from attending schools in the civil rights era.

Beyoncé’s version builds upon McCartney’s work through the integration of this generation’s voices of Black women in country, who have experienced mistreatment because of their Blackness and femininity. Although decades have passed between the two releases, there is still a need and call to action for Black women in country to be treated equitably.

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At this year’s Country Music Television (CMT) Music Awards, Adell, Kennedy, Roberts and Spencer reunited to present one of the night’s awards and reveal their matching tattoos, a sign of the covenant and bond they fostered while working together on “BLACKBIIRD.” For Spencer, the recording process was a pull between having fun and wanting to leave a great impression on the music.

“While recording some vocals on Cowboy Carter, I remember having a deep desire to really have fun in the process and to just leave a great impression musically. I’m constantly wrestling with the tension of wanting to do so well that it impresses those listening and following my own internal compass and doing what feels and sounds good and real to me—the me without an audience,” says Spencer. “I’m always pushing myself to sing, write and perform better and more authentically. That time in the studio recording on Cowboy Carter was no different, except that it all felt different... because this time it was for the artist who’s arguably taught me the most.”

READ MORE: Country Music Star Brittney Spencer Shows Us Her Tour Wardrobe & Talks the Power of Self-Love

Since the release of Cowboy Carter, Spencer has appeared on every medium: as a shimmering bartender on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live, a soulful denim queen on Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club radio show and a sultry ’70s vixen on The Daily Show. Needless to say, Spencer will not be escaping to live a nomadic lifestyle anytime soon. But one can hope.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY JIMMY FONTAINE

However, the Baltimore-born, Nashville singer-songwriter feels good about the year thus far. The eclecticism of 2024 is a stark difference from her big break in 2020, where Spencer was able to entertain the masses from her studio apartment during quarantine. From interviews with The New York Times to segments with CMT, Spencer was regulated to her four walls until she began touring in 2022.

Opening up for Willie Nelson, Megan Thee Stallion, Maren Morris and Brandi Carlile exposed her to a broad spectrum of musical genres that influenced the creation of My Stupid Life. “My time on the road touring has definitely shaped a lot of my current evolution. Musically, it’s heightened my desire to make stories and sounds that feel universal,” she recalls.

Compared to her previous projects, which were made during periods of deep reflection and introspection between 2019 and 2020, her debut album provided an opportunity to explore the intimate parts of her life. Instead of reflecting on what was going on in the world, Spencer was able to step into her world for the first time.

“That’s a really hard thing for me, putting my feelings, putting my personal story into songs,” says Spencer. “That’s a really challenging thing for me. I feel like that’s weird to say as a songwriter, because creatives kind of thrive off of emotions were that valid.”

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“I like to make universal country music, and when I say that, I mean I want a little bit of something for everybody.” –BRITTNEY SPENCER

No song encapsulates this better than “My First Rodeo.” With each listen, Spencer paints a story about the quaint moments of falling in love—waking up in the morning to see their eyes staring back at you, the fearfulness of building and fostering an emotional connection with someone who sees you, and the desire to never let them go. Like the cowboys and outlaws of the past, this is not Spencer’s first rodeo, but it is the first time she feels comfortable enough to tell her fans about what it means for her to fall in love. A story that is universal in nature, but one she explains so effortlessly in the tradition of country music.

Now, aft er years of touring and festival appearances at Stagecoach, Outlaw Music Festival and CMA Fest, Spencer feels content in herself, in her story and who she is. The woman who left her studio apartment to travel the world alongside music’s bigg est stars is not the woman who is present in the here and now. Instead of focusing on the future and criticizing the past, she is relishing this moment in time.

“There are so many Black country artists that are coming up. I am so excited about that. When I moved to Nashville in 2013, I didn’t see any other Black country artists,” says Spencer. “I used to go to Mickey Guyton’s Writers’ Round [a convening of songwriters who play and perform their original songs among each other in a circular fashion] around that time; she was the only person that I saw. To be able to see this many of us, it’s cool.”

She lists the recent accomplishments of Reyna Roberts and Tanner Adell, whose song “Buckle Benny” went viral as significant moments of change. Not to mention Beyoncé's “Texas Hold ’Em” reaching No. 1 on the country charts as an addition to that. It is her hope that the conversation around diversity in country music will become normalized, and that the recent influx of Asian country music and more openly LGBTQ country artists is not a fad or a trend, but the future.

“My time on the road touring has definitely shaped a lot of my current evolution.” –BRITTNEY SPENCER

In the midst of this change and movement, Spencer is adamant about enjoying the newness of being an emerging artist, and memorializing it through the creation and production of new music, songs that will allow her to deepen the connection she made with fans on tour but also the relationship she has with herself. It may have taken touring, Beyoncé and a nomadic lifestyle to get her here, but Spencer is ready to tell her own story and welcomes the world to hear it. Why? Because she is, without a doubt, the coolest girl in country music, of course.

Her nomadic journey continues with a performance at the White House for this year’s Juneteenth Concert, a stop at NPR’s "Tiny Desk" for Black Music Month and a triumphant return to CMA Fest. Similarly to the creation behind My Stupid Life, one can expect for Spencer to be working on new songs along each new tour stop and performance. Who knows where the journey will take her. But rest assured that Spencer will make beautiful music along the way.

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Styled by Brittney Spencer
Hair by Jasmine Kelly
Makeup by Emily Gray Higgins
PHOTOGRAPHED BY JIMMY FONTAINE
PHOTO ASSISTANT: GREG AUNE
PRODUCER: TIANNA GROELLY