Rissi Palmer's a History-Making "Country Girl"

8/22/2007 Stephen L. Betts With her debut single, "Country Girl," making its entry this week at No. 58, Rissi Palmer becomes the first African-American female country singer to hit the Billboard Country Singles chart since Dona Mason, whose "Green Eyes (Cryin' Those Blue Tears)" peaked at No. 62 in November 1987. Since releasing her single in June, Rissi has received video airplay, made her Grand Ole Opry debut and distributed her four-song EP on iTunes. The Country Girl EP reached No. 3 on the iTunes Top 10 Country Albums chart, and remains a top seller. Her self-titled debut album, on which she wrote nine of the 12 songs, is scheduled for release October 23 on 1720 Entertainment. "My mother passed away when I was 8 years old, but still at that young age she had already instilled in me her love of country music," says Rissi. "Some of my fondest memories of her are when we would clean the house on Saturday mornings and she would play all these great records, especially Patsy Cline, who was one of her favorites. It's her love for country music that has always stayed with me. So this album represents my journey and I dedicate this album to her." Rissi ranks as one of MySpace.com's top independent country artists, receiving more than 760,000 plays of her music to date. She is currently featured on Yahoo Music's "Who's Next" page under "Hit List."