2018-2019
When I first came back to Memphis after living in D.C. and then NYC, I was making music but I felt like a loner. I wanted women in my age range who I could connect with, who keep you going. A community. Being able to have community in that way makes this work feel both worth it and possible.
For Tambourine Bash in 2019 I was paired with Marcella Simien and that was the beginning of what has become a long and meaningful creative partnership and friendship. Since then, Marcella sang background on my song “Have Mercy” – that song has actually earned me the most money out of any song I’ve ever written – and I got to perform with her at the GRAMMY Museum in Cleveland, Miss., for their 10-year celebration earlier this year. We’ve done backing vocals for our friend AJ Haynes from Seratones at JazzFest the last two years, and we sold out the Crosstown Theater for a co-headlining show at the start of 2025.
We first met in 2018, though, when we shared the stage at Music Export Memphis’ AmericanaFest showcase, which was the first of many times that MEM would convince me to step into spaces I wasn’t certain were designed for me. I’m not used to feeling like a minority. It creates some pause in me – should I be in this space or not? But I recognize that I’m bringing something that this space doesn’t have. Me showing up as my organic self really excites people. I’m not playing by the rules, I’m just being myself. That attracts who it’s supposed to attract.
And it did: Ann Powers and Jewly Hight from NPR Music were there and I got coverage from NPR as one of the best artists they saw at the entire festival. It put me on Ann’s radar in a way that would show up later and pay dividends, too.
Deep Water Sound was an immersive and innovative approach to touring, a concept that I built with my now husband, taking me across the country to perform in homes and unconventional spaces that were kept secret except to attendees on the day of the show. We really wanted to show off Memphis in as many ways as we could, and Music Export Memphis was able to fund a different artist to open for me in every city. That tour still has ripple effects that I feel now. I booked other gigs in those cities, I booked festivals, I met industry contacts that I maintain to this day, who’ve brought me opportunities. At the Los Angeles Deep Water Sound tour stop, I connected with Brandon Deener who ultimately produced my 2024 record Black Magic. He also introduced me to Ari Morris, who recorded and mixed the record – that really fully realized my sound. I’ve never loved it the way I do with Ari mixing it.
2020-2022
Before the pandemic brought us all to a halt, I showcased at my first Folk Alliance International in New Orleans with MEM in January of 2020. This was another space I was skeptical about – but I was well received and it led to another opportunity on an even bigger stage.
In 2021, I was back at Tambourine Bash as MEM hosted the event at the Overton Park Shell for the first time post-lockdown. And in 2022, MEM supported TONE to take a group of music artists to Art Basel in Miami – this was a pretty big turning point for me. I met HitKidd there. He was impressed by my show, we connected after and he asked me to join him for a writers’ camp in L.A. with Issa Rae’s company Raedio, writing for her show Rap Shit on HBO. I also ended up on his 2024 album HitKidd for President, as the closing song, and we did a writers’ camp for the Starz show P Valley – which came to Memphis because I helped them figure out where to go.
2023-2025
I kicked off 2023 back at Folk Alliance International, where Memphis was the City of Honor and I got to perform a juried official showcase in front of music industry from around the world.
MEM gave me an Export Bank grant to help get me to L.A. for the Camp Raedio writers’ room – I’ve done four since then. To go from an independent artist who primarily makes money off of live shows to becoming an artist who has multiple streams of income – what they call “mailbox money” in the industry, in the world of TV and film – it creates a version of a sustainability that I did not have access to before.
I closed out 2023 in Montreal at a festival called Mundial, where I was one of few American artists and performed for global booking agents and talent buyers, and then four months later kicked off 2024 in Austin with MEM at SXSW. That year I put out Black Magic, played MEM’s showcase at AmericanaFest again in support of that release, and it landed on Ann Powers’ list of favorite releases of the year for NPR.
In 2025 I headed back to Brooklyn to play BRIC Arts & Media’s Celebrate Brooklyn, a booking that actually came from my showcase at Mundial Montreal. When I lived in Brooklyn I saw Janelle Monae there, I saw Angelique Kidjo, and I said: I don’t know when, but I’m gonna do that.
That fall I traveled to Cali, Colombia, to perform and work with young people in the creative camp at the Cali Blues and Folk Festival. I was the third Memphis artist to get to do this – my girl Marcella was the first in 2023 – and it was a truly unforgettable experience. I wrote more about it for the MEM annual report and you can check that out here.
2026
I made my first trip overseas this year for my music, touring around London with Marcella and showcasing at the English Folk Expo in Manchester for talent buyers from across Europe.
At this point, I really feel like Music Export Memphis and me – I feel like we’ve grown together. From me saying I was going to take my career seriously, ever opportunity I’ve gotten with MEM, we’ve been growing together. I’ve been ready for them. The Talibah that did AmericanaFest in 2018 was not ready for what the Talibah in 2026 is ready for. I didn’t even have any music out.
Working with MEM has helped me have a more creative dreamscape. My goals have become way more creative because I understand there are so many possibilities on how one can have a successful career in music and I lot of the ways I dream now have come from opportunities I’ve gotten working with you guys.
Who has an organization in their city that’s paying them to get merch? It’s amazing. Thank you, Music Export Memphis, and Happy 10 years.