Rissi Palmer

In 2006, Starbucks Entertainment distributed a four-song EP that put Palmer among the top 5 best-selling country artists on iTunes.[2] Palmer was also featured in a 2005 Country Music Television documentary about African-Americans and country music.[7]

Palmer's debut album, Rissi Palmer, was released on October 23, 2007, by 1720 Entertainment. Palmer co-wrote nine of the 12 tracks.[2] She was the featured artist on Yahoo! Music's "The New Now," which highlights talented newcomers, from October 17 through November 21, 2007.[14] The album produced two chart singles for Palmer in "Country Girl" and "Hold On to Me," which peaked at number 54 and number 59 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, respectively.

In 2008, Palmer released a new single, a cover of Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown's "No Air." The song debuted at number 58 and eventually reached number 47, becoming her first Top 50 single on the Hot Country Songs chart. It was included on a reissue of her debut self-titled album later that year.[15]

Palmer also released a Christmas single in late 2008, "Grown Up Christmas List," before Palmer ultimately parted ways with her record label.

On March 6, 2012, Rissi announced via her blog, "Six Strings to Sippy Cups", that she was back in the studio recording what she calls a "Sophisticated" children's album, named Best Day Ever, to be released in November 2012 through Baldilocks LLC, a company she and her husband, Bryan, formed.[13] Best Day Ever was eventually released on January 15, 2013.[13]

This album was co written and co produced by Deanna Walker, Rick Beresford, and Blue Miller.[13] She describes this album as "a bridge between songs that are suitable and interesting to kids and are entertaining to adults".[13]

The album has been released to positive reviews. Sarah Lindenfeld Hall of WRAL's GoAskMom.com, reviewed the album and said: "I’ve listened to a lot of kids music. Best Day Ever succeeds because it really, truly is written with kids and their parents in mind. Palmer’s gorgeous voice weaves stories from the kids’ and parents’ perspectives. And it’s all set to some great music, mostly pop with a little country twang or R&B thrown in".[16] Christine St. Vil of Momsncharge.com says of the album: "Now don’t let the idea of a “children’s album” deter you from checking it out. This is one children’s album I will listen to with or without my munchkins…and I won’t get looked at with the side-eye for singing the songs outloud when I’m by myself (Dora anyone?). From songs like “Be Me”, to “You Could Be Dancing”, to “Not Afraid of the Dark”, these messages are for the adults as much as they are for the kids.".[17]

On March 18, 2014, Rissi launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of her follow-up to her self-titled debut, a five-song EP entitled The Back Porch Sessions.[18] The project was produced by Grammy Award-winning producers Shannon Sanders and Drew Ramsey, who also produced on her first album. Rissi has described the sound of this EP as "Southern Soul", a mix of country, soul, R&B, with a little gospel. The title of the project is a nod to her great-grandmother's porch in Summerville, Georgia, where Palmer says she began singing as a child.[19] The Back Porch Sessions was released through Rissi's label, Baldilocks LLC on May 26, 2015.

The project has received positive reviews from critics. Music journalist Jewly Hight wrote: "Palmer has been describing her Back Porch Sessions EP, released in late May, as Southern soul, but there’s more in the mix than a single descriptor can contain: jazz-relaxed neo-soul sensuality, streamlined country-pop song structure, down-home nostalgia, rootsy instrumental textures, honeyed melisma and a more expansive vocal palette than she’s displayed in the past".[20] The EP has been featured in publications such as Rolling Stone, People Magazine, and on Perez Hilton's popular website.

On October 22, 2019, Rissi released the full length album, Revival.[21] The album was produced by Brian Owens, Shannon Sanders, and Palmer. The first single, "Seeds", produced by Shannon Sanders, was released on October 15, 2019 along with a video directed by Emil Gallardo.[22] Described as a "protest song", "Seeds" was written after the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO and the video depicts images of a police shooting and an immigrant child locked in a cage. The second release was the song "Soul Message", which was featured in Rolling Stone Country's "10 Best Songs of the Week" on October 14, 2020.[23] The third release from the album was "You Were Here (Sage's Song)", (written about a miscarriage Palmer suffered in the summer of 2019), on February 3, 2020, with an accompanying animated video.[24]

Revival has been described as "a potent punch of soul, rootsy R&B, and back-porch country"[23] and Rissi's most personal work to date.[25] Kyesha Jennings from Indy Week says "At its core, Revival is eight tracks of pure inspiration for navigating love, racial tensions, self-acceptance, and, above all, perseverance."[26]

On August 30, 2020, Color Me Country Radio with Rissi Palmer debuted on Apple Music Country.[27] The show "brings to the forefront the Black, Indigenous, and Latinx histories of country music that for too long have lived outside the spotlight and off mainstream airwaves." [28] The bi-weekly show has featured interviews with artists such as Darius Rucker, Mickey Guyton,The War and Treaty, Crystal Shawanda, as well newly discovered act from the 60's, Sarge & Shirley West.[29] The title of the show comes from the name of the debut album of Country artist Linda Martell, the highest charting solo Black woman on the Billboard Country Charts [30] and the first to appear on the Grand Ole Opry in 1969. [31]

As an offshoot of the show, Rissi established the Color Me Country Artist Grant Fund as a partnership with Apple Music Country Host Kelly McCartney's Rainey Day Fund to "to support the underrepresented voices of BIPOC artists in country music".[32] The grant will provide a micro-grant fund with cash gifts of up to $1,000. The fund was established on December 18, 2020 and One-hundred percent of the fund goes to artist grants. [33]