Prelude : back to the studio

What is Black country?. Portrait of a Black man playing an early American banjo ; The birth of Black country

In a Motown cherry tree : learning to write hillbilly songs. The Supremes sing country at the Copacabana ; Florence Joplin, erased foremother of Black country

D.C. daze : small towns (are smaller for girls). Saved by Lil Hardin and the Johnny Cash Show ; Close encounters with trippy hippy country ; Domestic politics ; Seeking the safety of foreign soil in a small southern town called D.C. ; Dixie gothic ; Roberta Flack and audacious Black country love ; Swamp Dogg, essential Black country eccentricity ; 1976 bicentennial year Black country

Encountering : the first family of Black country and other allies

Scaling music row citadel : screaming like a banshee in Belle Meade. Dressing for success at the Uniquely Quiet Bluebird Cafe ; Charley Pride at a black-tie banquet in a Nashville ballroom ; Making a power move at the weenie roast ; In the Ryman with Roy Orbison and a chicken dressed up like Johnny Cash ; The Fairfield Four, Black gospel at the Ryman, and Hallelujah, my first cut! ; Kossi Gardner, unheralded Black country genius with funeral-organ roots ; Unpacking Opryland cultural war zone ; Midsummer's first hit, the last days of DeFord Bailey, and other victories

Big dream : big hits, big mistakes. Quincy Jones and the Cosmic Colored Cowboy ; The capital of Black country, Los Angeles ; The mayor of Black country, Ray Charles ; Los Angeles Black gospel, a taproot of Black country ; Herb Jeffried, the Bronze Buckaroo, rides, sings, and films Apple Valley

The second-best gift my bad mama gave me : Mother Dixie. The Wooten brothers, the greatest Black country brother band of all time ; Maya Angelou's country cameos ; The Thing Called Love : a white country movie with Black country denouements ; XXX's and OOO's ; Unexpected consequences

Revived the rails : Cowboys, Pullman Porters, and Soiled Doves. California Zephyr, running with Lil from Bettie ; Iowa : more trains, planes, and automobiles ; Redemption remembered in the Black northwest ; Vindication, plain but not simple ; The pointers, the panthers, the Barbary Coast ; The Coast Starlight, riding a spine of the pacific, to the City of Angels ; A train whose name should be changed ; Nat love, cowboy, porter, memoirist ; The original singing cowboys were Black ; Fresh horses ; Kansas City, Charley Pride, and baseball ; Lil, the territory bands, and letting go

The archive and the academy : creating a new country canon. Lil Nas X enters the academy ; Rissi Palmer enters the archive ; Rhiannon Giddens, creator and curator ; Allison Russell writers a cornerstone for the canon

Far yonder : beyond Motown and Music City. Linda Martell, a reckoning ; Aretha Franklin, a benediction ; Circling back, DeFord Bailey ; A new Nashville now, Mickey Guyton ; Circling back, Charley Pride ; Circling back, Lil and the Linchpins in a Wild Woman's town

Encore : a songbook performed in a wild woman's town.