In the Room w/Alice Randall and Dr. Andrae Alexander

We are excited about our next “In the Room w/…” This month, SONA board member Andrae Alexander will be in conversation with Alice Randall, a best-selling novelist, award-winning songwriter, author of the new book and album “My Black Country,” and the first Black woman to write a number-one country hit. Watch the livestream on March 22, 12pm PT / 3pm ET by subscribing to our YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@wearesonala

ABOUT ALICE
Alice Randall was born in Detroit, Michigan, on May 4, 1959. She wrote her first country song sitting high in the branches of a cherry tree overlooking a Motown highway. In 1983 she drove to Nashville and founded Midsummer Music, a company that still exists, and played a role in launching the career of Country superstar Garth Brooks. Randall, the first Black woman to cowrite a number-one Country hit, Trisha Yearwood’s “XXX’s and OOO’s,” had songs recorded in the eighties, nineties, aughts, teens, and twenties. Some of the stars that have recorded Randall’s songs include Glen Campbell, Marie Osmond, Holly Dunn, Moe Bandy, and Radney Foster. She is the Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities at Vanderbilt, where she teaches the course Black Country.

ABOUT ANDRAE
Dr. Andrae Alexander is a GRAMMY-winning musician, USC professor, and Amazon best-selling author of the book, “Build Your Music Career From Scratch,” now in its second edition. As a musician, composer and consultant, he has worked on projects such as Empire, Detroit (the film) and the soundtrack of The Birth of a Nation. Among the artists he has worked with are NeYo, BlackBear, George Drakoulias, Swae Lee, Mellissa Ethridge, Allee Willis, Meek Mills, Pusha-T, Kanye West, Jesse J., Rodney Jerkins, Lamont Dozier and No I.D. In 2022 Andrae shared co-writing credits on Jon Batiste’s GRAMMY-winning Album Of The Year.