Rising country star Brittney Spencer to perform this Sunday in Rochester
One of the fastest rising stars in country music will be taking the stage this Sunday, July 17 for the second installment of the 2022 Think Bank Down by the Riverside free outdoor concert series.
Brittney Spencer, a singer-songwriter who broke onto the national music scene in 2020, has had a meteoric rise since the release of her first EP, Compassion — touring with the likes of Jason Isbell, performing on late-night, and just this year earning her first major award nomination.
Opening for Spencer will be Austin, Minn.-based indie-folk band Whalen and the Willows. The show is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
A native of Baltimore, Spencer moved to Nashville in 2013 to pursue her dream of becoming a singer-songwriter — and after years of playing in clubs and other venues, she caught her break in 2020 when she covered The Highwomen's Grammy-Award-winning song "Crowded Table.”
The EP followed, with critics praising Spencer’s “artistic complexity and capability for writing truly soul-stirring songs.” Writing for Glamour, Candace McDuffie went on to describe Spencer as “an emotive spirit, one who unapologetically relishes whatever she’s feeling at any given moment.”
“If I’m going to be an artist then I’m going to be myself,” Spencer said in the interview with Glamour. “I don’t really have a caricature to be — I’m just me, and that’s all I want to be. I just put my truth out there without having to always say it. I’m trying to challenge all of the things I’ve been told to believe about myself and people who are walking in the shoes that I walk in. We are enough as we are.”
Spencer’s success continued into 2021 with the release of the single, “Sober and Skinny.” That year, she performed the song on NBC’s TODAY Show as well as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She also hit the road with two of the biggest names in country music, Reba McEntire and Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit. And this spring, Spencer was recognized for her hard work — earning her first-ever CMT Music Awards nomination.
But even with the success, Spencer remains humble about what it means to one of the few Black women on country radio. In an interview with The New York Times, she discussed how she has been able to carve out a path in the genre, while remaining true to her own experiences and identity.
“I just write about anything, sing about everything,” Spencer said in a conversation with the newspaper. “And hopefully that puzzle makes sense to people. But for me, it’s just been important to talk about the things that I want to talk about, and that does include being a Black woman. People will have to understand that no artist in general is just one thing.”
— If you go —
The show starts at 7 p.m. on Sunday, July 17 at Mayo Park (located behind the Mayo Civic Center and Rochester Art Center).
Admission to all DBTR shows is free and open to the public.
Blankets, lawn chairs, and coolers are welcome.
There will be five local vendors on hand: Thesis Beer Project, InfuznFoods, Eastwood Grill, Tacos Barajas, and Carroll's Corn.
For a full summer concert lineup, visit Rochester Civic Music’s website.
