Jon Flaugher

Lady Blackbird: Slang Spirituals

by Gareth Thompson
October 2, 2024

In the aftermath of George Floyd's killing in 2020, the relatively unknown Marley Munroe dropped a cover of Nina Simone's 1966 song “Blackbird." Having adopted the title into her new stage name of Lady Blackbird, she took sombre pride in seeing this version chime with a fiercely engaged Black Lives Matter community. This came purely by zeitgeist chance after decades of endeavour to establish herself. “Blackbird" was also a taster for her 2021 debut album Black Acid Soul ...