- 3 months ago
In this episode of Biscuits & Jam, Southern Living’s Sid Evans sits down with the hot new soul musician KIRBY. Born in Memphis but raised in Eudora, Mississippi, she grew up surrounded by family, church choirs, and a rich community that shaped her artistry. In this fun conversation, she reflects on her grandmother Cora’s remarkable legacy as one of DeSoto County’s first midwives, the influence of Stax Music Academy, and the deep ties between her music and Mississippi roots.
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00:00Kirby welcome to biscuits and jam hey I like the sound of it that's what I should have for breakfast
00:05okay biscuits and jam honey always better than a bagel that's true in the south that's a very
00:13true thing like that's so true well said I love it hey Sid how you doing I'm great I'm great so
00:21I'm coming to you from Birmingham where where am I reaching you what you know pink beard is
00:26repping y'all so hard oh my god have you gotten into pink beard yet no oh my god everything he
00:31does he's repping Birmingham Birmingham Birmingham a black guy country singer with a pink beard you
00:35got to get into him um I'm coming from you live from Mississippi okay all right not too far from
00:41you and not too far from Memphis right not too far from Memphis I won't tell the people how close I
00:47am but I'm not too far so you know that's my hometown shut your mouth yeah okay let me let me see how
00:54how hometown you are um name a mall in Memphis a mall in Memphis oh gosh you got it come on
01:03I mean Saddle Creek or something come on brother Germany town that's okay
01:09I had to pull that back from the memory bank you got it man you chose the best one Saddle Creek is
01:16awesome so yeah I left there when I was uh 18 but I still my mom's still there so I go back
01:23you know as often as I can visit her and um yeah I love my old hometown 240 240 north I love it
01:32yeah Memphis gets yeah Memphis is special and you're born there right you know what I like to tell people
01:38most you know most people I'm I'm top in Mississippi so most of us we went to a Memphis hospital but yeah
01:43my family was born and raised in Mississippi I was raised in Mississippi um but yeah I was born in
01:50Memphis I spent like a lot of my I think I didn't we didn't move fully into Mississippi so I was like
01:5611 yeah yeah but you know I'm from top of Mississippi it's literally like a hop and a skip you know it's
02:04a half hour up the road half hour up the road and my grandmother most of my my upbringing my my my
02:10my Sundays my weekends my rooting was in Mississippi because I mean we were just down the road down the
02:17road yeah so Kirby tell tell me a little bit about your hometown where you grew up you know what what
02:23was the I don't know the house the neighborhood where you grew up kind of paint a picture for me
02:28I mean we we grew up in a and I grew up like my first formative years was in a little place called
02:34Whitehaven um so I went to uh St. Paul in Whitehaven I would go there was this this um locally famous I
02:42wouldn't even say locally but if you're in the church you know the Jackson family they're some of the
02:46greatest um organ players organists that that have ever walked the earth um but Barbara Jackson
02:53she would she would go to piano lessons down the street and you know learn piano from her but some
02:59of my best memories came from when we would drive on Sunday uh 45 minutes because we're from uh my
03:07family is from a smaller town Eudora area um going down to my grandmother's house I grew up in a very
03:13small church where uh the cousin was the choir director the cousin was the piano player the the
03:21you know everybody my grandmama was leading a song like it was a very familial experience um a little
03:27church on the hill and those those those those mosquito bites those times in Mississippi those are just the
03:34things that um when I think about my childhood that's really what I hold closely but yeah I mean I
03:39I think a lot of times people assume when you grow up in Mississippi they immediately go
03:45Delta but Mississippi is a vast place and the part of Mississippi that I'm from you kind of got to go
03:51I'm close to Memphis and so it's not as Delta as some places in Mississippi are but my grandmother and
03:58my mom and dad really they're in a thick uh they're missing they I'm a Mississippi they are Mississippi like
04:06it's a real and there's a difference and so that that to me is what um what formed me because they
04:12carry that and and and how they raised us but yeah man just I was just a little girl singing in the
04:18church choir with her with her cousins and her grandmother and her aunties and I had a pretty
04:23sweet childhood I'm not gonna lie to you but it was it was it was it was beautiful and you've got a lot
04:29of family around there I mean you're mentioning all your cousins and everything so big big family
04:34you know what you think you have a big family until you go around somebody with a bigger family
04:38like this weekend they did a cookout for this song called thinking country my my friend named
04:43Corey Lou and when I tell you I thought I had aunties until I kept saying hi auntie hi auntie
04:49hi auntie hi auntie hi auntie like it just kept going and I was like you know what I thought because
04:55you know my mom is there was nine on my dad's side there was five on my mom's side out including
05:01her so there's six total I think it's nine on my date it might be ten I'm pretty sure it's nine
05:06so you know I have plenty but one thing I will say Sid is um so many people have passed and so you I
05:13feel that now now that my grandmother my grandmother passed two years ago so many of the the pillars and
05:19the elders and the anchors that really um held our family together um have have gone on and so I think
05:25that's why this record feels important to me because I'm kind of holding on to a time past
05:31things have changed things have really changed so I I come from a a pretty big family but they get
05:36bigger that's what I've learned they get bigger yeah but I've got I've got a lot of aunts and uncles
05:41and cousins we should mention the record um it's really it's got to be very exciting it's called Miss
05:48Black America congratulations on that it's you know it's just about to come out as we're talking
05:54right now yeah um tell me a little bit about that title and you know what that means to you and how
06:00you landed on that well Miss Black America is short for Mississippi Black America and you know when I
06:05first started writing this record I had this whole idea like oh this is a political record like and I
06:11played it for somebody and they said honey this ain't political this is as familial and family
06:17oriented as you can get and really that's what it is it's about my personal Mississippi experience
06:23I think when people think of Mississippi they go to the movies and they think you know they go back
06:31into a time's past I can't generalize Mississippi and say it's one thing or another I can only talk
06:36about what my Mississippi experience is and so I have my dad talking on the record I've got my
06:42aunt talking on the record I've got my my parents on Jump the Broom I've got them talking
06:47about you know being married for 48 years going to be 49 this year so it's just a if you have never
06:53been to a family reunion or you haven't been down south or you're or you just want to put on a record
06:59that makes you feel like that warm southern hug that your grandmother would give you this is what
07:04the record should feel like and I and I also want to even though the title says Mississippi Black America
07:09that's because I to be honest about the south is to know that depending on your color your experience
07:17in the south is it is different but one thing I will say is that coming back to Mississippi to make
07:24the art for this record because we shot every photo every video um Mississippi or or or Millington at
07:33this point we are not shooting we're shooting outside of Brooklyn and saying we're Mississippi we came
07:38home to the dirt to the I said I want the bites I got the bites all up my leg the chigger bites I
07:44earned my stripes this summer I promise you said I got them all on me I said we're shooting this
07:49in the humidity down here and using art um artists and photographers down here to really pull the record
07:54together but I feel like I say all that to say coming down here to do this record has really healed
07:59the part of me that likes to think of Mississippi in this box of saying well we're not welcomed yeah I could
08:07not have done this record if people who did not look like me did not open their arms and say I got
08:14a location I want you to shoot at do it for free I could not have done this record if I didn't have
08:19this man who I don't think he's never even met me who lets me shoot on his leg he's got acres and acres
08:24of land around me he says come on just shoot I'm not gonna charge you anything I've had that happen to
08:30to me so many times for people who do not look like me and I and I say that to say for people who think
08:36about Mississippi and they think oh I'm not safe oh I people are just gonna treat me bad there's good and bad
08:42people everywhere but I dare I say in these times we got some really good ones in all colors in Mississippi now and I think
08:51Mississippi um deserves a a second chance in the in that narrative we got a bloody history and that and
08:59that blood is still very much here but there's some people that are willing to to be a part of a a much
09:05better future and and I've witnessed that firsthand by coming back and shooting down here because I at
09:10first I was kind of scared to do it well that's beautiful to hear that and and um and there's some
09:15beautiful images uh that I've seen that that came out of those shoots and I mean but you're in a you
09:21know you're in the back of a pickup truck and and uh you know wearing these beautiful gowns and
09:27and uh yeah it's you know I love that it's it's so connected to where you've come from and it's it seems
09:37like it seems like even as you were making the record that you know maybe you didn't even fully realize
09:44how much your home was gonna was gonna be a kind of a star uh character in it right yeah that's
09:52good Sid I did not because and I say this all the time when you are um I I say black because I am and
10:01that's my experience when you grow up in Mississippi a lot of times people make you feel like if you want
10:08to be somebody you got to go and there's a truth to that because for some reason unfortunately there are
10:13there is a lack of resources they there is somewhat of a glass ceiling but when I came home
10:20I was just reminded and just shedding all these types of oh I can't be here too long and I just
10:27allowed myself to kind of receive the love the simplicity of Mississippi and I just said oh my
10:33gosh you know you said you moved to New York you moved to LA but you miss the root of um what it's
10:41all about which is just loving your family and just knowing that at the end of the day you just
10:46got some people around you that care and and and where I have the most of that is here so I didn't
10:52even realize like how much I like I never dreamed I'd have my daddy talking on the record my dad does
10:58not he's not that guy but like it just started to pour out of me how much I wanted to share um the
11:05beauty of this place um with people and I think when you lose somebody that happens my grandma passed
11:11two years ago and I'm still trying to find archivals and things that I've recorded just of her voice
11:16and so I do feel very led to um archive and have tangibles of these people that are around me um
11:24because I think there's a southern I don't know if you've heard this before but they say that the
11:27southern accent is dying people don't even know I have heard that you heard that right yeah so it's I keep
11:33pressing and people who are really true to farm you know they don't want to be on camera they don't
11:37want they they just want to live their simple life don't put a camera in front of me I'm not trying to
11:42be on TikTok they just want to be you know themselves and not not that no one they're private people
11:47but I'm trying my best to get everyone my uncles and aunts talk in front of this camera because I
11:52don't think we they realize um they're gems man and they're not the type of people that are here
11:59and that have made these towns special they're they don't duplicate them like this I think that
12:04they are at generations past and so I'm just trying my best to like gather I'm like what is it when
12:10what's that that movie when he tries to get all five stones what is it Avengers oh yeah yeah I'm
12:15trying to get listen you don't watch Avengers neither but I'm trying to get my five stones
12:20infinity stones yes my southern infinity stones on my hand um to archive these these these heroes to
12:28me because that's what they are what was your grandmother's name oh Cora Cora Cora White yeah
12:34she was she was something else he a person that um never met a stranger she was a midwife so they
12:42I recently while I was back home during Black History Month she was one of the first um midwives
12:48in DeSoto County because you know oftentimes black women of course they can get to hospital to birth
12:53babies and so so many people um when she was alive we would experience this and my mother even more
12:59they would come up and be like yo mama birthed me Miss Cora Miss Cora you know what I'm saying and so
13:05it's such an honorable thing they have her I think they still have her book you know of the names of
13:10babies that she's birthed so you know yeah my my grandmother was very um she was sweet she wasn't
13:16she wasn't no cookie cookie cooking grandma she was a pistol carrying grandma she was a she was a tough
13:23grandma she was tough baby she was tough she could kill a snake but um she was a special a really special
13:30strong woman and her not being here has a really um you don't know what can what can really um what
13:36what a hole is until you lose um the matriarch of your family and so this this album has at least
13:44allowed me to think about her and in a fond way because I'm I'm I'm trying to make up for the
13:50things I didn't get to film and do with her trying my best to do that with my parents my uncles and
13:55aunts because I you know I I didn't film enough with her well it's kind of a it's kind of a tribute
14:02to her yeah yeah that's that's a beautiful thing and and she's listening to it somewhere hey come on
14:09there in that heavenly choir she's a good soprano too now I like it singing down somewhere
14:15so Kirby we're talking a lot about family and and um your given name is Kirby Dockery right
14:22oh see I'll put my social security up next yes that's me that's my name for real that's it Kirby
14:30Dockery yeah well so that you know that's a last name that has a lot of history in Mississippi
14:36I mean it was a famous plantation and I think it's on the national register of
14:42historic places and and it's often cited um as a place where the blues was born which I don't
14:50I don't think you can put that to any particular place but it comes up a lot
14:55tell me about your relationship to that name you know it's it's it's something that I I we my you
15:05door where we're from it's probably what hour 45 from Cleveland um there I was just talking about
15:12to a lady Francesca earlier I said I wish I knew how to I don't know how I could directly trace right
15:19like how can I how will I be able to find if my ancestors like pass through like how you know
15:27I can't directly say like there I have written proof like this is the blah blah blah blah blah
15:33um but it's so close to home it's such a like for me I just went there I think if it was a Dockery
15:41Farms in Georgia I would have been like okay well that's cool but a blues plantation an hour 45 from
15:49where my folks is from now my daddy said something about somebody's last name was Covington and when
15:54they start working at the farm I think they change it to the doctor it's a tricky I don't I don't know
15:58no one around me I think maybe my uncle who had passed might have been able to tell me more but no
16:03one around me is able to give me a direct account but what I will tell you it has informed whether it
16:10be because I'm adjacent to or directly possibly connected to in my bloodline it has informed me
16:17and confirmed why I am so drawn to a sound um in a way that I think no grammy no hit no anything could
16:27because I feel like this journey is always so much about am I doing am I supposed to be doing this
16:34is this is this who I'm am I doing this right and I think when I when I went on went to Cleveland
16:41that last time and mind you the people have been Bill Dockery has been not Bill Dockery his name is Bill
16:46I actually don't know Bill's last name but Bill who runs the Dockery farms right now has been so kind
16:51I even met one of the daughters that one of the daughters was at the home the grant I think she
16:55her father is um oh god her father is um one of the the Dockery men uh that was running the plantation
17:04I believe she said father not great great grandfather we'll see um but when you're on that land
17:10when I was on that land personally I couldn't help but feel like this is my why
17:16this is my why it would be great to have a paper to say this is the exact
17:23why my name is here but it's just so close to home and it's so close to who I naturally am
17:29it just for me confirmed why I love this music why I love soul music why I've never been able to shake it
17:35I try to write pop and it sounds like if you don't take this beat off and put some clapping
17:41and some stomping and some harmony like what are you doing like I have demos of me trying to do the
17:46other thing and it's almost as if those who came before me were saying stop no one needs to hear this
17:54and so for me just being on the grounds and having them um the people that you know running now be so
18:00kind and so open to me telling my story and being there it just was full circle I came
18:04there and shot with my dad in front of the um the gas station and he showed the the Mr. Bill that
18:10that works there now he was like you know showing us where the troop joint used to be on the land
18:15I mean you just you just feel something there anytime you you really drive to Cleveland Mississippi
18:21um and go through Clarksdale because you know you got to go through Clarksdale to get to Cleveland
18:26the air shifts the air shifts it's something about going down those roads long enough and I don't
18:33even think you're cognizant of it but the air and the frequency and you can tell that you are in a
18:41different world and um I I just think for me some people probably go there and feel like an outsider
18:46and I and when I'm there I just my identity was confirmed and so I I just don't challenge it and I
18:54just accept that as like maybe this is some some sprinkle of a you know a God confirmation of like
18:59girl I know you know you don't sing soul because it's popular you sing it because it's in you
19:05and it's always been in my spirit it's always been my heart if it's really in my bloodline honey that
19:10would just be a bonus but it just it's in my name yeah and you really feel it I do and I don't yeah
19:17and you can't have you have you been to Mississippi before I said I'm sure you have how far how far how
19:22far down you've been I've spent a fair amount of time down around Clarksdale and you know that part
19:28of the world so you know what I mean you just feel it when you're down there man and I just for me
19:32it just it does something to me every time my first time going down there several years ago
19:36I was um I've had three experiences the first time I went down there I was just giddy I was oh my god
19:45my last name is this and this and then it hit me and I was grieved um and saddened and then I think
19:54the third time that I went down there was when we shot um for the man and for this rollout um and I
20:00got in kudzu for the first time I ain't never been that deep in I saw that I mean man I said first of
20:06all it's a lake behind us so you know the snakes couldn't have been too far I said lord I just thank
20:10you for keeping me but I that that time I felt empowered and um just to meet um I even met meet
20:18someone who kind of uh really knows more of the history and able to talk to her and she was kind
20:24and I showed her the music I mean it's just you just can't but but feel feel humbled to be on um
20:31to be on that ground and in that humility is a bit of sadness but you try to transform truly what
20:38the blues is is you transform that pain into something beautiful and into the music so I just
20:43I just want to answer the call Kirby I want to ask you about another really um special place um
20:51and that's Stacks oh you're tickling my heart so you know this is this is one of the um most
21:01I don't know important places in the history of music in this country um is Stacks Records and you
21:08studied at Stacks Music Academy which is which is adjacent to Stacks Records and um and it's an
21:17incredible incredible organization and and they have um kind of after school programs and and and um
21:27different sorts of programs to try and um find really talented young musicians and yeah tell me
21:33about your experience there what was a highlight of your time at the at Stacks I will tell you my
21:39highlight that changed my life Bootsy Collins I I remember like yesterday I had an Ed Hardy hoodie on
21:45and like we were like Bootsy they told us Bootsy's coming Bootsy coming Bootsy coming and he walks in
21:51man with his wife and his head and he's so tall and like he just walks in with like the I think that's
22:00the first time the funk got on me because before then I would have been so so so but honey he just
22:05and I think the shirt had just all types of blue and silver glitter I was like why do you even get
22:10a t-shirt like this and a hat like this but it was just stardom you know for me and I think he's you
22:16know Bootsy has so influenced me but that had to be one of my top three moments at Stacks my second
22:25moment was meeting well I didn't even get to meet him I was working at Stacks Museum and Isaac Hayes
22:31walked through the museum and he had on all white and I I said listen I didn't know angels
22:39saying so but when I tell you that man walked through and I was just like do y'all not know
22:44who you are like you're just walking through casually that that and he was with um he was
22:49with somebody else that was really famous too I can't think of it right now but man like I think
22:53having those two experiences at a young age like just having Funkadelic just Bootsy representing Funk
23:00that close to you Isaac Hayes coming that close to you and and you can just feel I don't know when I
23:08see those type of people God rest you know Isaac Hayes you just can feel the history in the past like
23:14he stood so empowered to me and I just think seeing them come back and honor that land and us as kids
23:24man we were like 18 like we we were we were kids you know but they just made the time to just show up
23:32and just pour into us I think there's a picture I gotta ask Tim Sampson who runs marketing at Stacks
23:37but I think he has a picture of me in the room when Bootsy was there I need to find it but I think
23:42that to me that's when I saw how like soul and like Funk you don't and which is usually why I wear
23:50my hair big you just have to embrace the loudness of of that of that genre you just gotta you just
23:58gotta own it and even on a on a summer because I think it was a summer when Bootsy came even Isaac
24:04wearing that was for sure summer when he had on all white honey you a brave soul to wear white
24:09in a Memphis summer at any time because you're gonna be 98 100 degrees plus you know what I'm
24:14saying I would have sweated through that thing but that level of boldness and audacity and I know the
24:19kids say aura I don't even like that word but they just embodied it and I just love when you can see
24:24your artists and they come in unapologetically looking and feeling like their music and they were
24:30also kind you know be kind too they weren't above they talk to us so yeah I those you where else in
24:36the world where else in the world nowhere nowhere exactly I was waiting for that see it there's
24:43nowhere that's nowhere I think you need to go back there and teach one day what no I do and I go I go
24:51back I say teach like that because I still God is still giving me patience you know that's something
24:56I gotta work on but what I am doing I um quarterly that's been my goal this year or semi-annually
25:03just bringing in people to speak to the kids we had Omar Grant who used to be um the co-president
25:09of Roc Nation label a huge A&R he A&R'd Rihanna's record DJ Mester Bikshan he just came and spoke to
25:16the kids in June hopefully I'm gonna have a couple more producers coming for the years out and you know
25:21I I kept thinking to myself you know so many of my friends have Grammys and you know they're just I
25:27in my in my idea they've hit a lot of the markers that I still dream of hitting and I and I was kind
25:32of like saying oh I'm not going to come back until you know I can I can kind of stand in stand on all
25:40the dreams that I've wanted for myself coming true but God really was like hey hey hey at this point
25:46now you use your resources my my publisher Big John Platt he didn't know he was gonna be my
25:52publisher I didn't know he was gonna be my publisher he came to speak at Stacks when I was a senior in
25:58high school I had no idea when I finally would sign my publishing deal what eight years later it would
26:05be Roc Nation and Warner Chapel and I would be able to be like you don't remember me but I came up to
26:11you with a stack of songs and you just explaining to me what publishing was changed my life that
26:16that's what that school has done and when I when I rep Stacks when I when I sing it at the top of my
26:23lungs when I say Stacks loudly it's because it literally changed I was driving from Mississippi
26:29coming to Memphis after school program and they exposed me to so many things prepared me for
26:36Berkeley blessed me to to be connected with my focal teacher teacher that I helped me for my
26:43audition at Berkeley it just gave me a network that I didn't have because Mississippi we got the talent
26:49but even more so Memphis has more resources you know what I'm saying so it just Stacks changed my life
26:55Kirby we got to talk about food for a minute because this this is biscuits and jam you know you grew up in
27:00this pretty big family and especially when you factor in all the cousins who was who was doing
27:07all the cooking in your house I would I'm gonna give people their their flowers per their dish
27:11okay the sweet potato pie dish goes to my grandmother nobody's it is hitting on her sweet potato pie
27:21my mother's now mind you we're vegetarians now my sister's a vegan so when we say chicken and
27:27dressing it ain't no chicken but my mother's dressing is hands down the best dressing to me
27:35I love my mother's dressing I would like to give myself like you know people like to talk about
27:41oh veganism blah blah blah but we don't we don't do chicken I don't I personally don't do chicken just
27:45because of hormones and stuff but I have mastered a southern fried vegan chicken that I that I think
27:51good good good good you know to stand with the best of them you know the best the best chicken
27:56chicken drumstick you know I'm gonna own it I'm gonna own it yeah I'm gonna own it so yeah that we
28:02we've got dishes you know that are good in our family but my sister is a great baker um man she makes a
28:07mean lemon pound cake um man we're we're but I will tell you this Sid I'm gonna be completely honest with
28:14you we are it's it we're a cooking family but like there's a there's some cooking families like
28:25we cook and I think our our normal cooking is probably a 10 because you just can't you can't
28:31even basic cook in the south and not just be good you gotta be you know even your baseline has to be
28:36like tens across the board but there's some people I think that really go like there's a side my in my
28:42my aunts in-laws I mean I think they have when they cook they they it just be pans of of just
28:50ribs and just I said how many animals were harmed there's not were any many animals it's how many
28:56animals were harmed you know so there's some families you know they got smokers oh but I'm gonna
29:00tell you what I really love rest in peace of my uncle Elroy and I think he would have had the best
29:05if he was here and he pushed it he would have he would have really put anybody's catfish to shame
29:10but I loved my uncle Elroy's cooking and let me shout you out even more this is this is this is
29:15you ready for some Mississippi stuff Uncle Elroy yeah I'm gonna go real Mississippi on you rest in
29:20peace to his soul he used to throw and his son is doing it now my cousin a wildlife game night
29:26so my that on my dead side of the family they're hunters honey when you see me holding a rifle that
29:31was my cousin's rifle and so the frog the rabbit the deer the
29:40baby the chipmunk I don't know what else they got down there all the wildness
29:43the day hunt that's where you go and he he used to have the hogs he don't do it anymore
29:49his son doesn't do it but you know my uncle had the hog pen and they was selling to me but he was
29:54known really in Eudora um just for having really excellent meat and the wildlife game night was his
30:02thing and people would come all over in the back of his house he had a little little little house set
30:07up honey and they would come and he would no charge you want to pay money pay but he's not
30:12charging you and people come to eat the wildlife game of the night
30:18I think they had one about a month ago honey I wasn't able to attend and I wouldn't have been
30:25able to eat but they they throw down they throw down you can appreciate it though it sounds like
30:31oh for sure yeah yeah yeah I seen a frog outside the other day I said honey I got a place for you
30:38a place for you and it's on the plate but yeah they they really love they they're I love as even
30:46though I'm not embedded in that much you know with the hunting and all of that I just love how
30:51they're so true to farm you know they're they're about it man the deer the rabbit you know they're
30:56they're just authentic you can't do anything you know but respect that what about um like a garden
31:03did you guys grow up with a big garden you know my dad keeps saying said he he really wants to be
31:10he keeps saying if I could do it over again because trucking is a hard industry it's it's a hard
31:15industry um to find good you know transportation is just just tough but he said if he could do it all
31:20again he'd be an American farmer um because I think he would love to just you know do soybeans
31:26and corn that's what he would want to do I can't grow um a leaf I don't have a green
31:32that is not my thing she's not a garden girl my uncle um is he loves like even right now I think
31:40he's got tomatoes you know he's doing like little things like that but we didn't do like I didn't do
31:45I don't I don't have the green thumb but my daddy always says that if he could redo it
31:50um he would go into farming so it's it's like peak summer right now tomato season
31:56what's your idea of the perfect summer sandwich oh you know what I love right now I eat a
32:05vegan tempeh don't judge me avocado I'm a simple girl I'm a simple girl yes vegan tempeh that's my
32:13protein um avocado some garlic aioli on some fresh sourdough that's my sandwich I love that
32:23and I'm a breakfast sandwich girl I'm a breakfast girly so listen throw me some throw me some egg
32:29a little vegan cheese and a little vegetarian bacon on a biscuit or some bagel I do sneak you know how
32:35I sneak my biscuits in every once in a while if I just need a real quick fix for a biscuit but I
32:40can't do uh I can't you know whip one up or nothing like that I'll just I don't know if people
32:45know that Chick-fil-a even does this I'll just order the Chick-fil-a biscuit you can get a Chick-fil-a
32:49biscuit without getting the chicken and the sausage just any time I need like my little fix real quick
32:54I'm like oh I need a biscuit I need a biscuit but um yeah that's that would be my sandwich I love the
32:59little sour the TTLA and I love a good a good breakfast sandwich but we've had to get creative as a
33:05family because my sister has been vegan for about 11 years you know we learned early on that we really
33:12couldn't do a lot of the hormones that was in chicken and and dairy as black women and so
33:18we've tried our best to to pivot from that but every now and then honey the cow the cow calls me and I
33:24I say moo moo okay I'm gonna answer you today I love the Chick-fil-a you know you just got to cave
33:33into that every yeah that's a little that's a little bit you know I ain't never heard nobody
33:38all right Kirby well let's talk about the record just a little bit more um and and talk about your
33:44music um you know you have a really distinct sound and I mean it's really it's uh it's not like
33:56anybody else that I can think of although I have heard you know I hear a little staple singer sometimes
34:02come on that's just um and I I've got to I've got to think that you know they must have been
34:09playing in your house at some at one point that you know what I really that's somebody that now
34:15mind you I come from a Johnny Taylor house we my mama really wasn't playing disabled singers a lot
34:20of that came from my from my stacks like high school I really got into a lot of Otis and Rufus
34:28Thomas and Carla Thomas Eddie Floyd sax taught me my mother was like she's kind of an oldies girl
34:35but she loves her like Anita she was like Anita Baker she was like and my mama loves gospel
34:40um my daddy is a blues man Johnny Taylor Bobby Rush uh Denise LaSalle
34:47Albert King like that's what my daddy is on you know what I'm saying um but yeah like I I feel
34:55like my the staple singers Mavis oh my gosh if Queen Mavis any day anytime I can just get her to say
35:03oh on record or just hold her hand like she just she's definitely a huge um the staple sings are very
35:09very huge influence on me last night I was playing um I was playing one of your songs
35:16in at home in the kitchen and um it's called love by you this is an older song of yours
35:23yeah and my daughter walked in and she said what is this and I said I said you know well it's this
35:30it's a singer named Kirby that I'm interviewing tomorrow and said what do you think of it and
35:35she's kind of listened for a minute she said you know it sounds to me like a song that you might
35:42dance to at your wedding oh how old is she she's 18 oh I love it but it does it really does it's
35:51it's a great song and yeah um talk to me about that one and what it's kind of meant to you on your
35:57your journey man that that that um that song has has really made a life of its own I have to kind
36:04of go back to like where I was I wrote that song in my parents house I actually keep forgetting that
36:10I was living in LA at the time but I wrote it during uh I believe that was like a Christmas holiday
36:15um I had the melody and stuff and then I came back to LA and figured it out with Jeff Giddey
36:22um incredible producer one of the best guitar players in the world um and he just fleshed it out for me
36:29um I I think I was going through such a time because I had freshly lost my first love who was killed
36:37in a car accident and a lot of times when people they hear that line somebody without someone is no
36:42one at all and they like I can never say that I can never say that and I'm like I get it but I think
36:48also like grief brings that type of raw honesty because I tell you the truth
36:56when your last day is here you do not want to be alone and so the truth is I don't care if it's
37:02your mother your dog your cat baby a nurse somebody without someone you've it's impossible for you to
37:11walk this earth and it not be one person if you've lived decently to even a dog if you've petted a dog
37:18one somebody's going to want to come back to you and say I received the love that you gave me so I
37:23really do stand on that line because it came from a place of realizing through death that nothing
37:28shows you what really matters until the person that you that you wish you could call is not there
37:34and so I think a lot of times people hear that line and they're kind of scared about it but
37:37that song just came from a place of really just rawly desiring to know can I be loved can I truly be loved
37:47and I think I mean honestly in retrospect I was almost asking it to a person you know because he wasn't
37:53even on this earth who couldn't even answer that you know so I think that's why that song just kind
37:57of hits people and connects people but I love I look forward to being in love again to a point where
38:04I can just write an album of love songs because I just love how people feel when they listen to it
38:11I understand that songs like The Man and all those other things that are real raw and true to
38:16true to what people might be experiencing it might that's not a song you can sometimes casually put on
38:22but love by you I think if you're in love or you want to be in love or you ever have been loved to
38:28any capacity it just ah it just feels safe and I like this idea I like the idea of people putting
38:36on my music and thinking of you know whether it be a wedding dance whether it be a a soft or tender
38:43gaze some sense of like um safety and in love um I love just being able to be the soundtrack to that
38:50and I want to be able to offer people more music that makes them feel like that and I think the
38:56more I feel like that I'll be able to write it you know and I just I have to I gotta live it I ain't
39:02gonna fake it well it's a beautiful song and it clearly has an impact on people and you know I was
39:08looking at some of the comments that people have left on that song what they say oh they just love it I
39:15mean they just you know I think it just kind of transports you somewhere else and um and I do
39:21think you you've somehow struck a chord that is you know it's just very universal I like them you
39:29know that's a that's a song from almost I don't know eight or nine years ago right man tell me about
39:35it yeah but in the world of TikTok honey everything has a new life listen I don't care if I wrote it as
39:40a kid I wrote this song when I was three I would like y'all to hear it now and TikTok says I'm gonna
39:46blow it up for you and change that through y'all's life like you know it's just there's there's no rules
39:51so there's no rules well you have a new album um that's out yeah and again it's Miss Black America
39:58Miss I like how you say it Sid I like how you say it with that Alabama accent so you've got it there's
40:05there's a song on there that jumped out at me what and there's so many uh we can't talk about
40:10them all but there's one that I loved that's called my people come on that's that's the staple
40:16singers one right well it kind of is yeah that's the staple singers one it's got this sort of happy
40:21upbeat feel to it and there's also kind of some fun you know food references in there come on
40:28love me like the chicken little grease right yeah yeah don't don't don't don't don't roast my chicken
40:34yeah I love you I love you like a soul food place yeah um talk to me about that song I mean I love you
40:42like uh my granny gold teeth my grandma used to have like a a slide a slither gold right here man she was
40:48she was something else she had a little a little piece of gold um yeah man that song to me
40:55which is why it's it's it's it's not a when I say my people I want people to put that on and feel
41:03like it's just really about southern people um it's it's it's about my black people white people
41:08like it's about my Mississippi community which is diverse um which is beautiful which is really rooted
41:17in the goodness of people I had a conversation with a young lady earlier and I was telling her
41:21what I really appreciate about my dad saying on the album that Mississippi has he said black and
41:28white people get along quite well in Mississippi some of them don't and I think that's just a
41:35takeaway that I want people to to to listen to this record over a while and not feel like
41:40you should generalize Mississippi as a place that oh it's racist oh you can't come to certain places
41:46during sundown hey hey hey there is good people and there's bad people and good is not synonymous
41:54with one race bad is not synonymous with one race and I think coming back home to make this record
41:59has reminded me that you gotta look past the color and go straight to character and so when I sing my
42:06people I love the way you wear your hair I love the salad clothes you wear I love you I love my people
42:11you got the sauce and recipe look how they stare they can't compete I love it I love it
42:16like I really wanted to shout out all the counties in the in the bridge but I didn't have time to do
42:21it but man like I just I I wanted to feel like you're driving down Mississippi in a small town you're
42:28driving through Hernando you're driving down Coldwater, Sinatobia and like you're just feeling
42:33the warmth and the kindness let me tell you I have called blind called it so many people
42:40I've got a man I'm gonna shout him out on this interview he might read read it or listen
42:44his name is Umberto he owns the governor's mansion in Clarksdale now I blind called the lady that now
42:54runs the Couture mansion in Clarksdale Mississippi um Clarksdale was I believe you started by John
43:00Clark and the Couture family built that mansion and all of that um I blind called her and said
43:06I'm trying to do a shoot I need your mansion is perfect what do you think okay come on down
43:12I want to meet you I come on down I meet her she says here I want you to meet the mayor you want to
43:19shoot over there let me call somebody that when I sing my people that is what you get when you come
43:25to Mississippi majority of the time you get a safeness you get a warmth if you treat people
43:30because see what it is I think a lot of people in Mississippi they got discernment if you're not
43:35really if you kind of if they feel iffy about you you probably you're gonna get a sweet hello
43:40and a quick goodbye but if they feel good about you it really is an arms wide open place and I think
43:48that's why a lot of people are moving here too many of them I really kind of want them to slow down
43:52because I would look we've got to move further in the delta because there's too many people moving
43:57but I it's just when you hear my people I've lived and seen that it's some of the sweetest people
44:04and caring people the the I don't want anything from you type of people um are here and I think
44:11that is a side of Mississippi that I want people to close their eyes don't forget the past we got a
44:17bloody past that is true but no less true is there are some people here who do not look like me not
44:24my color white people black people brown people that are just genuinely kind and I and I attribute a
44:30lot of that to the environment um and and to the to the to the frequency that is in this city that the
44:37the something in humidity I don't know what it is in this state but there's just um a willingness
44:42and a safeness here that if you're good people we're gonna be good to you and um that's that's my
44:48people and that that's not color that's character what's your plan with this record um and and
44:55particularly when it comes to um uh to Memphis and um and Mississippi do you have any anything on
45:03the horizon in terms of dates or or shows you're doing that are going to be close to home man my dream
45:10you know I want to do a show at Ground Zero we're working on it I don't have anything set yet but
45:16I'll just tell you my dream I really want to do a show at Ground Zero in Clarksdale yeah I really
45:22would love to do that I think I've got to grow and get bigger but my my biggest dream you know is to
45:27I want to do a Snowden uh Snowden amphitheater show here they got Teddy Swims coming I think in the next
45:34week or so or two weeks or so so when I get my give me a couple years I feel like I'll be able to do
45:39that proper um but I think my thing is like I just want to give back right now my focus is just make
45:45sure that I'm utilizing the talent so just making sure that the artists that I work with the
45:50photographers the cinematographers makeup artists really using the locals and making sure that I'm
45:56giving opportunity and in putting payroll and putting money into the economy you know by giving
46:01people opportunity to to work on the project and I mean I would love to do shows my whole band um
46:07they're called the Bluff City Boys and they're so ready they're just waiting for me to say the date
46:12um and so I think once we get this record probably closer to top of August I'll be able to kind of
46:19plan for like a September show um but I just want to do it big I'm really big on like just oh man I just
46:26want it to be done proper but also like I think it goes back to the stacks thing you gotta do where you
46:33what you can where you are and so I think it's just I can't I'd be remiss if I just let the year go by
46:39and I didn't you know do something musically um live here so hopefully um we can do something in
46:47Memphis and um in uh North Mississippi or Clarksdale Cleveland it's gonna happen oh thanks dude I
46:54received it it's gonna happen who's the who's the person in your family who's most excited about
47:00this record my daddy yeah he is he is um he's ready this man I didn't think he was a star right
47:07I didn't I thought my daddy was gonna be very camera shy he's asking me when when we're filming
47:11next well he's on there so he you know he wants to be on there more yeah he's he's ready man I didn't
47:17know that my daddy was gonna be that guy he doesn't know that the algorithm is one of the things
47:21where like if you click on one video like it's gonna start feeding you so every day because of
47:25course I'm back home I live in Brooklyn but I'm here um until August finishing the record so he comes
47:30home he's like another one of your videos popped up today and I'm like daddy it's because you clicked
47:36on one the algorithm is gonna keep in you so he's like finding old songs from like sis like he's really
47:43he's tapped in but for me this is like this is my grammy this is my grammy being able to like make
47:49this record and and have him really see what it is that I do my mom has always been with me on
47:56shoots and you know she she's been in the thick of it since I was a miss preteen Memphis at eight
48:03years old you know what I'm saying but my dad is just now like oh okay this is this is how this works
48:10so honey as long as I go viral on Facebook um I'm a star you know as long as I got some Facebook posts
48:18that he can share and you know tell his brother about I'm doing well so that that he's excited
48:24and he's he's he's he's my biggest fan I don't know if you've gotten him on TikTok yet but you know
48:30oh my gosh I have you've got a million and something followers on TikTok so I have honey they were they
48:37were they were very kind to my daddy so yeah he's got more coming well Kirby I just have one more
48:43question for you yeah what does it mean to you to be southern man it's the best what does it mean to
48:49be southern the south has given me my value system it means speaking before being spoken to
48:58it means when I say yes ma'am or no ma'am this isn't me um it's just showing my respect it means
49:07oh man huh don't give me no unsweetened tea it means oh man it means when you when when I let you
49:16in you try to make a left turn and I stop I want to see a little wave you know that's just it's just
49:22little it's little protocols I I just think for me it's um it has given me this sense of um nobody is
49:32really a stranger you know it is our job for me I love it it's just it's it's it's like welcome
49:39it you it's taught me how to welcome strangers hospitality we we had a shoot yesterday and the
49:47people were thanking us about being hospitable it's do you need some water can I feed you can I fix you
49:54a plate it's these types of things that I hold on to that made me feel safe and loved and and empowered
50:02I think it's something so empowering about being able to be hospitable and and make a person feel
50:09like you're welcome here you're home and I take it everywhere I go if I'm in new if I'm in Brooklyn
50:16I'm even more country than I am down here because I want y'all to know I am not from here ask me where
50:23I'm from honey because it's not how it's not the east coast it's not the west coast so I take it with
50:28me proudly I love Mississippi I love the south I and it's just for me especially with my grandmother
50:35being gone um she one thing I know about grandmother we take us to the doctor's office wherever we're
50:41going hey baby how you doing wait what's your last name it's like grandma do do we have to do we have
50:46to know everybody but that's what this culture is and um it's something to not be ashamed of it's
50:52something to claim and claim loudly so I'm forever southern and can't wait till I can buy my my acres
50:58honey and build a big old house I'm coming I'm coming I'm coming I'm coming I'm planning it here
51:03I see that in your future thank you see it well listen congrats on the album um and I know you got
51:12to be so excited to get it out there and share it with everyone and yeah congrats on everything and
51:17thanks for being on biscuits and jam biscuits and jam honey that's my type of jam I like it
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