It’s a balmy, blustery winter night in East Nashville, the kind of weather that makes locals jittery following the deadly tornado outbreak of March 2020. But inside the Basement East, rebuilt after those storms demolished it, the backstage dressing room is jammed as Brittney Spencer, resplendent in a floor-length leather jacket and white cowboy boots, basks in the glow of her first-ever headlining show in her adopted hometown. A who’s who of Black Nashville country artists, including Jimmie Allen, Blanco Brown, Reyna Roberts, and Tony Evans Jr., whoop it up as flashbulbs pop. ¶ With respect to then music critic Jon Landau’s words when he discovered Bruce Springsteen, I have seen the future of country music, and its name is Brittney Spencer. Along with her effervescent personality and unshakable drive, she can straddle a range of styles and, with a voice as powerful
