Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Carmen Dianne. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Carmen, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I have always dreamed of pursuing a career as an artist, but I took a detour for a while because my family encouraged me to go to law school. I decided to study entertainment law so that I would be as close to music as I could be, but I quickly realized that a career in law would choke out all opportunities for anything else. I started school in 2020, and while I was there I got COVID few times and that combined with a pre-existing and ongoing health issue was enough for me to take a medical leave of absence. In that time, I lost two family members very close to me very unexpectedly and I realized that life was too short to live it for anyone other than myself and anything other than my dreams! So, I dropped out, started working as a writer and singing in writer’s rounds.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Hi! I’m Carmen and I’m a singer-songwriter and bassist from Tennessee. For me, co-writing and songwriting is a lot like therapy. I love nothing more than sitting down with other songwriters, talking about what’s really going on with us and finidng some common ground to work through together through a song.

I am most proud of representing my culture and reclaiming part of country music as a black artist. Many people don’t realize that there are negro spirituals, like “Just a Little Talk With Jesus” that I grew up singing every Sunday that became famed country and gospel songs. Many people also don’t know that or that the blues scale provides the basis for much of country music as well as soul and r&b. I like playing on those commonalities to create music that sounds like the way I grew up. So I’m not sure if it’s quite accurate to say I make pure “country music,” — but one thing I know for sure is that I make southern music.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

The best thing that you can do is meet people and connect not just to network but to make real friends. Just be a real friend to people! Bring artists you believe in up on stage with you and connect your friends with people that make opportunities for you. You can only receive as much as you give back!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn being afraid in front of an audience while singing and playing original music. I think that the fear of being perceived is probably the biggest block to people being able to get an accurate read on who you are and what you think. For anyone who is nervous about playing your original music live, just know that mistakes don’t matter. If anything, a mistake onstage is an opportunity to inspire the audience! Just be real and be yourself, as cliche as it sounds, because our only job on that stage is to be authentic and to entertain. If you are too nervous about how you think you look in order to be yourself, share your story and your energy and to have a conversation with the audience, then you have made the decision to dim your light, and it’s your job to be a star!

I also had to unlearn feeling weird about being a black country artist. The first songs I ever wrote always came out country or bluesy, and I found that so frustrating at the time because I didn’t understand why I couldn’t or didn’t write r&b. Writing r&b was something that developed over time, and something I understood a whole lot better once I began to play bass. But country came naturally to me because I heard it every time I left the house, every time I got in the car with my mother, and I heard its principals reflected in the traditional gospel music my church sang every Sunday. It’s a really interesting time to be a black country artist right now though, for sure. Beyonce didn’t just open the door, she kicked the door in for all of us, and it’s really incredible. I think for a long time many black country music fans, myself included, felt like an outlier, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. We are making our own in-crowd now.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @carmen.dianne

Image Credits
Libby Danforth, Alex Wieland, Joseph Patrick and Nathaniel Clayton