We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jada Cato a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jada , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

As a black woman in country music, I am often mischaracterized. I’m constantly asked if I am an R&B artist or a rapper. I have even had my music described as Country R&B despite it having no elements of rhythm and blues! Existing in a black body seems to communicate a pre-written story about my experience and artistry. People gasp, absolutely shocked to hear I am a country artist and have been for my entire life. I was country back when it wasn’t cool. Before CowBoy Carter. Before country was an aesthetic on TikTok. Before Taylor Swift went pop. I was the ”weird” black girl, which left me wondering- when did whiteness get a monopoly on art and when will black people break those chains? Don’t little black girls get to play guitar and keep their twang? Can little black boys buy cowboy boots? Ballet slippers? Or just cleats? White supremacy lives so deeply within the black diaspora, telling black folks who they can be, how they can dress, and what they get to do. On a grander scale, patriarchy does this to all of us. I make art for the dreamer learning to just BE. Be themselves. Be authentic. The new American dream isn’t to live as the matrix tells us, but to conjure a world from our own imaginations.

Jada , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have been performing (singing, acting, dancing) since the age of 3, learning the craft of storytelling and the healing powers that come with it. I began studying private voice, competing in opera and theatre competitions, and touring with “Clovers and Company,” an audition-only band of 4-H youth across Georgia. In the background, I was writing and learning what my own voice was without a character. I was inspired by the many (white) women excelling in country music in the early 2000s. I changed focus from piano to guitar and started performing my own songs throughout my hometown. Despite this progress, I decided to go to college to study musical theatre, still writing songs occasionally and trying them out on YouTube. After graduation, I worked within the theatre and cruise industry while building a band, writing more songs, and creating connections in Nashville where I am now based full time.

My art has shifted to become a safe haven for the marginalized, the heartbroken, the hopeful. Because of this work, I received a GLAAD Rising Star Award and A Color Me Country Grant, both of which funded my first EP, “JADA CATO.” I write music that urges society to question the roles they take on and the limiting beliefs we are conditioned to hold so tightly to our chests. Like the best (outlaw) country artists in history, there is nothing off limits- cheating, government, patriarchy, facism.

I balance my saving the world with investing in the next generation. I have been a voice and acting coach for 7 years, and am wrapping up my time at the New York Vocal Coaching Program for further education and certification. It was also in 2018 that I became a certified yoga instructor, furthering my passion for social justice, mind/body/soul connection, and a unilateral, collaborative social structure that emphasizes earthly and spiritual equality. This is how I birthed: The Cosmic Cowgirl. Inspired by the amalgamation of nature, humanity, and the great beyond, my goal is to generate creations bigger than ourselves as we walk each other home.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I am in a deep pivot right now. In 2018, I met the man who would become my first business partner. As time moved on, I realized we weren’t values aligned but I didn’t yet have the tools to communicate this, stuck in cycles of people pleasing, fawning, and fear. I thought I needed some wizard behind a curtain-especially as a black queer woman in a field dominated by white men. Through years of inner work and therapy, I could see the parallels of my self-worth and my career. This year, at the tail end of my Saturn Return, I was forced to stand on my own two feet and face the music (and I wrote the soundtrack).

Admin work like registering my songs or updating my website was falling behind, we were only booking a few shows a year, and there wasn’t much follow through on the abundance of ideas presented to me. Was I being shelved? I was chastised for the ways in which I chose to use my body in performance, shamed into thinking I needed to “lose 10 pounds for the camera,” and even gaslit into thinking that it was okay for him, an older white gay man, to use the ‘n’ word. For years, I witnessed this person make inappropriate racial “jokes,” comment on other women’s bodies (men were safe!), and diminish my fears of touring while black in cities that I would never feel safe stopping in otherwise.

I finally decided: Enough was enough. And I was enough.

I spoke my peace, and chose to walk away- no matter the cost. It turns out that that cost was the FIGHT for ACCESS and AUTONOMY to my business. A fight I am still fighting today. I have no access to the platform holding my first project, my first website, and other resources being gatekept from me. This person even stole parts of my songwriting publishing rights.

When I want to give up, I question: How many black women have been held at arms length from their own work?

I keep moving forward.

I had become so afraid of chasing this dream on my own that I forgot it was MINE. If I had any advice to an artist today, it’s that there is no ONE person that will open the door for you. It takes a communal effort, but at the center of it all is YOU. I got a new website, new merch, and a new team that’s in alignment with my values. Is it more work? Yes. I had never developed or updated a website, made booking phone calls, registered my songs, etc. But I am willing. I am learning. I am sovereign. I am still a dreamer.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think many non-creatives don’t understand why we would choose to dedicate our lives to a craft that is viewed as uncertain and unstable. Many people stick with a job they hate for a weekend they like. And whatever works for you works for you! But I cannot imagine a world where I am not doing what I’m doing, even if it comes with a couple side hustles and a phone call home for money from time to time.

That’s a pretty privileged perspective, I know. I am grateful that I have the support of my family. And if this was 1860, I might have been singing in the fields of a plantation. If we go further back in time, maybe I would be singing for my village while I braided hair and cooking delicious food. But there was no Opry, no Ryman, no merch to print or tours to design. If I had been born today in Sudan or Palestine or Congo, would I want to sing at all?

This is why I sing. I sing because I can. I sing for every ancestor that couldn’t. For every ancestor silenced under a new name and language, ripped from their children. For the ancestors that chose the ocean. I write for those who have a story buried under rubble and ash. I sing because it releases so many joyful chemicals in my brain. I perform because we need JOY in our mourning. I am excited for the day that our society cares for artists to the degree that they use artists- ensuring their basic needs are met. Shoot-I’m excited for the day our society cares for everyone that way. We are on a floating rock! Spinning and spinning with nowhere else to go. So while we are here, my prayer is that we learn to care of each other as siblings. And just like my household growing up, I’ll be the one that’s always singing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Jadacato.com
• Instagram: @jadacatomusic
• Facebook: @jadacatomusic
• Youtube: Jada Cato
• Other: All of my music, particularly my new sing “ROLL TIDE,” is streaming on all major platforms!

Image Credits

Headshot/white shirt with acoustic guitar- Jeremy Ryan
Black outfit/yellow guitar- Zaq Brewer