Just when you thought Beyoncé had shown all her cards, Queen B goes country. Her new album COWBOY CARTER arrived on March 29, guns blazing.
Beyoncé didn’t step into the wild west blind. Back in 2016, she joined The Chicks on the Country Music Awards (CMA) stage to perform her song “Daddy Lessons.” Despite being the “highest rated 15 minutes in CMA history,” according to The Chicks lead vocalists, Natalie Maines, “[the CMAs] start[ed] getting racists bombarding their website with comments and emails and whatever. So they take her down, they took our performance down and caved to that bullsh*t. Then, they, I guess, got so much bad press for doing that, within 24 hours they put it back up.”
With that history, the discourse around Beyoncé’s February singles “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” was unsurprising. Country music’s conservative, majority white audience was up in arms over her perceived infringement on a genre that wasn’t “hers.” Little did they know, she was exploring and reclaiming a genre that is deeply rooted in black culture, from its instrumentation to its sound.
With a tight grasp on the reins, Beyoncé is riding confidently into “uncharted territory”: a crossroads between country, folk, rock, gospel, and hip hop.
The 27-track project opens with the hymnal “American Requiem” before soaring into “BLACKBIIRD,” Beyoncé’s interpretation of The Beatles’ classic.
Originally, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the lullaby is a message of hope for the oppressed.
Beyoncé has reimagined the song as an anthem for those blazing new paths. Joining Beyoncé on “BLACKBIIRD” are Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, and Reyna Roberts, black women who are carving out their own space in country music.
On Instagram, McCartney shared, “I spoke to [Beyoncé] on FaceTime and she thanked me for writing it and letting her do it. I told her the pleasure was all mine and I thought she had done a killer version of the song. When I saw the footage on the television in the early 60s of the black girls being turned away from school, I found it shocking and I can’t believe that still in these days there are places where this kind of thing is happening right now. Anything my song and Beyoncé’s fabulous version can do to ease racial tension would be a great thing and makes me very proud.”
Beyoncé also put her own spin on other classics including Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” with an introduction from Dolly P herself, as well as an interpolation of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” for “II Most Wanted” with Miley Cyrus and Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” for “YA YA.”
Beyoncé also made it a point to highlight her unsung predecessors, including Linda Martell. According to LindaMartell.com, the now 82 year old, was “the first commercially successful Black female artist in country music.”
In addition to her introduction of “YA YA” on track 20, “THE LINDA MARTELL SHOW,” Martell calls attention to Beyoncé’s genre bending on “SPAGETTII.”
“Genres are a funny little concept aren’t they. Yes they are. In theory, they have a simple definition that’s easy to understand, but in practice, some may feel confined,” Martell says over sustained strings.
Listeners also get to hear Beyoncé’s genre bending on her song “DAUGHTER,” on which she performs the Italian Opera composition “Caro Mio Ben.”
Other featured artists include Post Malone, Shaboozey, Willie Nelson, Willie Jones, and her daughter Rumi Carter, who asks “Mom, can I hear the lullaby, please” on “PROTECTOR.”
Although, COWBOY CARTER is a departure from “Halo” and “Drunk in Love,” the songs feel distinctly Beyoncé; with a little twang.
This is in part due to the work of impressive collaborators like Ink, Atia Boggs, Dave Hamelin, and Raphael Saadiq, among others including Ryan Beatty who co-wrote “PROTECTOR,” “BODYGUARD,” “JUST FOR FUN,” and “II HANDS II HEAVEN.”
In an instagram post, Beatty thanked Beyoncé for allowing him to express himself on “something so big and beautiful and important. it feels rare /unreal in the best way.”
“Big,” “beautiful,” and “rare” are three perfect words to sum up a project that once seemed “Crazy,” but now has audiences “In Love.”