Anita White, the Seattle blues singer who performs under the name Lady A, has released a new song about her legal battle with a Nashville country-music trio over use of the name. “My Name Is All I Got” is a rhythmic, stomp-and-clap blues song that finds White detailing the hardships she’s faced in 2020.
“Yes, they tried to take my name/but my name is all I got,” she sings in a defiant call-and-response chorus, before growling about how “they keep trying to make me insane.” It’s an emotional performance, as if the weight White has shouldered for the past few months is inspiring, not hindering, her. “I’ve come too far to turn around,” she promises.
Near the end of the song, White offers a few ad-libbed words of appreciation. She thanks Margo Price for publicly stating back in July, while onstage at the Grand Ole Opry, that “the real Lady A” should be invited play the Opry — “That’s what true allyship looks like,” White says. She also shouts out Chris Stapleton for saying that black lives matter during a CBS interview and evokes the words of Bettye Lavette: “She said, you take our culture, our music, our artistry…leave us our name.”
In September, the solo artist White filed a countersuit against Grammy-winning trio Lady A, who changed their name from Lady Antebellum in the summer and subsequently sued White over the rights to the name. White is asking for unspecified compensatory damages, a royalty fee for music sales and performances under the Lady A mark and payment for infringing the Lady A name.