‘We Belong Here’: Miko Marks Talks Black Women, Country Music and Beyoncé

A new national tour paying homage to “Trailblazing Women of Country” comes to Northern California this weekend featuring a familiar Bay Area voice: country singer Miko Marks.

Marks, based out of Oakland, will hit the stage alongside Nashville-based singer Kristina Train and an all-female band to cover music from the beloved songbooks of Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton. The tour stops at Rohnert Park’s Green Music Center on March 9 and Livermore’s Livermore Valley Performing Arts Center on March 15.

I spoke with Miko Marks via Zoom about the tour, and what these legendary artists mean to her. Of course, we also talked about Black country music artists getting a spotlight following the buzz around Beyoncé’s chart-topping new country music.

Interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Ariana Proehl: I saw a quote where you say this tour feels like your childhood reimagined. Tell me more about that – what memories does it conjure for you?

Miko Marks: I grew up with my grandmother who migrated from Mississippi to Flint, Michigan. She brought the music and the culture from Mississippi. I would come over to her house after school, try to watch cartoons and she’d be like, “Baby, turn that off. Let’s put this music on. I want you to hear this.” And she just fed me — Dolly, Loretta, Patsy. Kenny Rogers, Johnny Paycheck, Waylon Jennings. She had such a plethora of music in her wheelhouse. There was R&B, there was jazz, but there was mostly country and gospel.

The [country] songs really stuck out to me, because they told stories that I could relate to. Like Loretta talked about being a coal miner’s daughter – how they didn’t have much, but her dad made sure they had enough, and that they had love. I feel like that’s where I came from. We didn’t have much, but my mom was out there working second and third shifts, and my grandmother was there to love on me and gave me my first listens to country music. I’m really grateful for that, because it put me on the path that I’m on, which I really love.

Is there a particular song you’re excited to cover for the tour? 

I love performing “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” and I love performing “Coat of Many Colors” by Dolly Parton. [Dolly] actually said that’s her most favorite song that she wrote. She’s like, “My coat is beautiful.” It was just sewn together with rags that people sent her mom, but she couldn’t wait to wear that coat. That pureness and innocence is really precious to me, because I felt that same way. I would go to school, kids would laugh at my clothes and make fun of me. But I felt like, “My mama got this for me. My granny gave me this.” I had some pride around that. So those two songs are really, really special. Sometimes I well up in tears because it takes me back to my upbringing.

Tell me about being backed by an all-female band for this tour! How does that feel? 

It’s so exciting. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever done. This is a Nashville-based women’s band. We all met each other and had the material on our own, and when we put it together, it was like magic. I can tell that this is not the end for us. Like once this tour’s over, we’re going to continue to do things. I can just feel that.

So let’s talk Beyoncé, who recently made history by being the first Black woman to get a No. 1 song on the country music charts. She’s sparked all sorts of thinkpieces around Black people and country music. As someone who’s a Black woman in this industry, what’s your take on all the conversation she’s stirred up? 

First of all, I’m very happy for the recognition it’s bringing to artists who have been in the game for a long time. They’re being seen now. And she brought that to this level, to where people are actually going down the rabbit hole of music made by Black country artists or Black artists in Americana. That’s the glass half full on it.

But it does sadden me to a degree that it took Beyoncé to come and shine this light. Nevertheless, I’m so grateful for the light. There have been so many artists that have been in this genre for so long working diligently, making really good music and now that’s being seen. So I’m thinking it’s a positive, because it is really opening up the gates for the masses to see that we are here, and we belong here, and we helped create this genre.

Right, and folk/Americana musician Rhiannon Giddens (who plays banjo and viola on Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” track ) wrote a piece for the Guardian to really underline, ‘Hey, we co-created this. This is not just Black people taking something and putting our spin on it. We’ve been here since the origin of it.’

I love how Rhiannon is going back [through history] and showing that. There’s so much to pull from historically that has been pushed under the rug. So it’s nice to see everything rise to the top. She and Rissi Palmer – they’re our champion spokeswomen. I’m honored having them as champions, and being one myself. It’s nice that people are getting educated on the true history of country music. It’s 2024, but no time like the present.

With all that being said, does it feel meaningful that you, a Black woman, are one of the two vocalists performing on this tour – which is likely to have a more white demographic in the audience?

Absolutely. Our first song that we do together is [Loretta Lynn’s] “You’re Looking at Country.” And the first night we did that, I was like, here’s a Black woman and a white woman standing here saying, “You’re looking at country.” And this is true – we are representations of what our country, fortunately, looks like.

As I sing that song, I’m thinking about what the audience might be thinking. But I know what they’re thinking at the end of the show, because they greet me with love, kindness, purchasing of my merchandise and just being really connected. So I’m pretty excited about the whole visual and the whole presentation of Kristina Train and me. Our voices blend so well together, and it’s just good to have all women [on stage], and be a reflection of what country music really looks like.

The Trailblazing Women of Country Tour plays the Green Music Center in Rohnert Park on March 9 and the Livermore Valley Performing Arts Center in Livermore on March 15. Ticket info here.