Rissi Palmer Collection

Rissi Palmer Collection

Rissi Palmer is a groundbreaking country singer-songwriter who amplifies Black, Brown, and Indigenous voices in country music through her Color Me Country streaming program on Apple Music Country. The Rissi Palmer Collection was acquired through the NMAAM-Vanderbilt Collections Initiative in the 2020-2021 school year. The collection includes six songwriting notebooks that span her career, years 1995-2019 and several outfits, including the dress that she wore onstage during her premiere at the Grand Ole Opry.  

Discover early handwritten lyrics, lyrics used for Palmer’s first album, and many unrecorded lyrics. A unique aspect of the songwriting notebooks consist of the contributing writers, edits, chord charts, and career aspirations. 

Professor Cynthia Cyrus created an annotated index of the notebooks with the students of the Spring 2022 Women in Music class. This can be found in the Vanderbilt University Institutional Repository (VUIR) at http://hdl.handle.net/1803/17673.

This collection may be viewed only in the reading room of Special Collections in the Jean and Alexander Heard Library. Collections should be requested 2-3 days prior to visiting in order to facilitate easier access. For questions or to request a collection, contact specialcollections@vanderbilt.edu.

Songwriting Notebooks

[“All this Woman Needs” from Rissi Palmer’s self-titled album]. Lyrics excerpted from “Blue notebook with Voyages printed on the front,” Rissi Palmer Collection. Reproduction, circa 2002-2007. Vanderbilt Special Collections and University Archives.

[“Country Girl” from Rissi Palmer’s self-titled album released as the debut single.] Page excerpted from “Multicolored rainbow notebook with song lyrics,” Rissi Palmer Collection. Reproduction, circa 2005-2009. Vanderbilt Special Collections and University Archives.

[“Hold Onto Me” from Rissi Palmer’s self-titled album.] Lyrics excerpted from “Pink, metal notebook with songs and planning notes for Palmer’s first album,” Rissi Palmer Collection. Reproduction, circa 2002-2007. Vanderbilt Special Collections and University Archives.