Terry Blade (born 1986) is an American audiovisual artist and singer-songwriter based in the Chicago metropolitan area. His work spans music, experimental film, multimedia design, nonfiction, and public interest media. His projects explore African-American history, queer identity, and the use of sound and image as historical records.
Blade was born and raised in Washington, DC. His family heritage is rooted in the American South; his grandparents were from the region, and his grandfather specifically hailed from Colerain, North Carolina. He has stated that his great-grandfather was a sharecropper, and his grandfather was taken out of school at a young age to work.
Blade has discussed regularly experiencing homophobia by the age of 12. He has stated that growing up Black, gay, and gender non-conforming was "rough" and "one of the most painful experiences" he "didn't think [he] would survive".
Blade relocated to Chicago, Illinois. He later began keeping a private journal, and in 2020, began turning his journal entries into songs.
Career
Music
Blade debuted his acoustic demo "The Unloveable" on April 3, 2020; the track received a nomination at the 11th Hollywood Music in Media Awards and later appeared as the opening song on his EP Misery, released on May 8, 2020. That same year, he released the a cappella single "The 'Karen' Blues", which was described by musician Adeem the Artist as "witty and biting".
American Descendant of Slavery, the Album (2021) and Neo Queer (2022)
Blade released his debut studio album, American Descendant of Slavery, the Album, on February 5, 2021. Reviews noted that the release combined folk, rock, and soul elements with spoken word excerpts from the 1940s of formerly enslaved African Americans. Adeem the Artist highlighted the album's track "MTF" for drawing parallels to real-world cases involving violence against black transgender women. The Archives of African American Music and Culture included the album among its "February 2021 Black Music Releases of Note". The album later won a Summit Creative Award for Audio.
Blade released his second studio album, Neo Queer, on January 14, 2022. The album used Neo soul and R&B to explore what he described as "love of self, love of others, and love unrequited" derived from a black queer experience. Days later, Blade was featured on Frankie Francis's Amazing Afternoons broadcast on Amazing Radio.
Photograph used as album cover for Ethos: Son of a Sharecropper
Won't Be Around (2023) and Ethos: Son of a Sharecropper (2023)
Blade released the blues single "Won’t Be Around" on January 6, 2023. The song received a Hollywood Independent Music Award nomination and entered the New Music Weekly Country Up & Coming chart following national radio airplay. The song "Won't Be Around" won first place in the Blues category of the 2023 American Songwriter Song Contest.
He released his third studio album, Ethos: Son of a Sharecropper, on February 3, 2023. The album used blues, folk, gospel and country music to explore his North Carolina ancestry and the legacy of African-American sharecropper labor. Blade used a 1937 photograph taken by Dorothea Lange of an African-American sharecropper near Clarksdale, Mississippi.
Reviews noted the album for blending blues, gospel, and country to explore themes of family history and Southern African-American identity. One review noted the album for its voice-led arrangements and use of first-person accounts. The album was included on The Boot's list of "Most Wanted Music: 2023’s Country, Americana, Bluegrass and Folk Album Releases".
Tell 'Em (2025) and Chicago Kinfolk: The Juke Joint Blues (2025)
Photograph used as album cover for Chicago Kinfolk: The Juke Joint Blues
Blade released the blues single "Tell 'Em" on January 3, 2025. The song was distributed by Paris-based record label Groover and music distributor IDOL. Reviews described "Tell 'Em" as Blade's "folk-blues approach to protest music", and noted that the song's themes of oppression and racial injustice drew inspiration from "real-life cases like Cyntoia Brown and Isaiah Brown".
He released his ethnographic audio project and fourth studio album Chicago Kinfolk: The Juke Joint Blues, on February 28, 2025. The project's cover is a 1941 photograph taken by Marion Post Wolcott of a juke joint in Belle Glade, Florida. The project was also distributed by Groover and IDOL.
Musician Ryan Cassata described Chicago Kinfolk: The Juke Joint Blues as "a historical preservation effort". Reviews noted the release for its focus on Chicago blues history, with some highlighting Blade's cover performance of "That's All Right" by Arthur Crudup, which was originally recorded in Chicago in 1946. Reviews also noted the release for incorporating archival interviews of Chicago blues figures such as Theresa Needham and Lefty Dizz, which were conducted in 1977 as part of the Chicago Ethnic Arts Project for the American Folklife Center.
Some reviews of Chicago Kinfolk: The Juke Joint Blues likened Blade to English folklorist Cecil Sharp, noting that the project "is difficult to call a music album in the usual sense", and is "more of an ethnographic record, a historical archive of early blues than just another album". Mystic Sons rated the album a 7 out of 10, noting that the project "captur[es] the same simple, almost live, performances that the genre is most known for". Country Universe rated the album a 4.5 out of 5, noting that the project "works as brilliantly as a concept album about historical precedent as it does as an example of the vitality of the form itself".
On November 21, 2025, Blade was included in Music Connection's "Top 25 New Music Critiques of 2025". Two months later, Chicago Kinfolk: The Juke Joint Blues was included as an honorable mention in Country Universe's "The Forty Best Country Albums of 2025". The project's companion website also won a Summit Digital Media Award for Website - Consumer.
Film and video
Won't Be Around (2024), All Ways (2025), and Railroad Tracks (2025)
Blade directed and produced the music video for "All Ways", which premiered at the Cyprus International Film Festival and was shortlisted for a Berlin Commercial Award in the Cultural Impact category at the Berlin Commercial Festival. He also directed and produced a music video for "Railroad Tracks", which later premiered at the Berlin Commercial Festival, and won the award for Best Set Design at the Sarajevo Fashion Film Festival. In 2026, the Berlin Music Video Awards included another Blade short, Harlequin, in its separate Silver Screenings presentation.
My Gender Is Black (2026)
Blade directed and wrote My Gender Is Black, an experimental documentary that addresses masculinity, sexuality and racial expectations of the body. The film combines interviews with portraits, archival imagery, sound and dance sequences. It also tackles themes of stigma, femininity, masculinity and self-definition among Black queer men.
Some reviews noted the film for its distinct voices and challenge to restrictive definitions of Black masculinity. Other reviews questioned whether the film's stylistic changes and limited context diminished its coherence. Another review noted the film for its cinematography and music, and commented that Blade's "images and music intensify the conversation rather than compete with it."
Blade also directed and edited the documentary's teaser-trailer. The trailer received Gold in the category for documentary trailers and teasers at the 2026 Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards. It reached finalist status for Best Sync in a Film, Series or Programme Trailer at the 2026 Music+Sound Awards.
Blade also developed short experimental works such as Shut, Parallax, Whirling Dervish and Body of Glass. The 2026 New Renaissance Film Festival in London featured Shut, Parallax and Whirling Dervish alongside Body of Glass, which won Best Dance Short. The 2026 London Fashion Film Festival placed Body of Glass on its program alongside Blade's #HIM4FEM.
Blade published Of Bloodlines and Blue Notes: Lyrics, Album Notes and Critical Essays, through Blade Arthouse Media in January 2026. The book combined essays, lyrics, album notes and reflections on the histories and musical forms behind American Descendant of Slavery, Ethos: Son of a Sharecropper and Chicago Kinfolk: The Juke Joint Blues.
Publishers Weekly described the book as a "direct and unflinching work of reckoning, both personal and societal", and designated it as an Editor's Pick. Kirkus Reviews described the book as a "serious and important book about music, lineage, and the moral weight of paying attention", but noted that Blade's commentary can at times, "stand in front of the work rather than beside it".
12Stephane-Eddy, Mbog (Sonikem) (February 1, 2021). "8 questions à Terry Blade". Blender Bookmagazine. Archived from the original on March 25, 2023. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
↑Quinn, Rick (March 3, 2023). Cholst, Rachel (ed.). "When Nashville Steals Your Voice". Rainbow Rodeo. Archived from the original on September 16, 2024. Retrieved January 25, 2026.
↑Bibliothèque Municipale à Vocation Régionale (BMVR) de Nice, Ville de Nice – Service / Direction de la Culture (2025), Tell 'Em, Nice, France: Ville de Nice, retrieved December 20, 2025
↑Médiathèque départementale de l'Isère, Isère Departmental Council (2025). "Chicago Kinfolk: The Juke Joint Blues". Médiathèque départementale – Isère. Isère, France: Département de l'Isère. Retrieved May 9, 2025.
