Cookin’ Up A Messa Country Coin
Beyonce's latest album, Cowboy Carter, hits No. 1 on the Billboard country albums chart.
I’m an American Boy, a country boy really, raised on radio. A good deal of my childhood was spent in cars on cross-country road trips, listening to Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 weekly broadcast. In this era of digital downloads and unlimited streaming, does anybody listen to the radio anymore? Beyonce’s recently released Cowboy Carter plays like an hour-long radio show on the fictitious station "KNTRY Radio Texas". There are clips by legendary country singers Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and the original black female country star, Linda Martel. These legends play radio announcers who introduce the next song to play. These clips, sprinkled throughout the album, add to the old school radio show vibe. The 27 tracks on Cowboy Carter take you back to those late-night road trips, as you drive through miles of cornfields, where the only radio station available, plays nothing but country. Have no fear Bey pop fans, she takes country, rap, hip-hop, gospel, soul, opera, and of course, pop, throws them in a blender and serves up, from her Cunty Country Kitchen (her words, not mine) what’s best described as a country pop, hip hop smoothie. Bey redefines genres and reimagines what music should sound like for a new age. As Linda Martell says in one of the clip intros, titled Spaghetti,
“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, well, some may feel confined.”
Five years in the making, apparently Beyoncé spent a lot of time in her country kitchen during the pandemic. While the world was posting food pics and getting fat, Queen Bey was working on a musical insurrection. With the release of Cowboy Carter last week, she’s cooked up “a-mess- of-somethin” and claims a whole new genre, or two, that’s generating loads of coin for herself and her co-conspirators. She’s not queen of Country yet, but watch out! As of April 7th, she’s made history once again with this latest album. Cowboy Carter hit No. 1 on the Billboard country albums chart, making her the first Black woman to top the chart since its 1964 inception.
There are so many great songs on this album. Here are five I’ve had on repeat this week…
With Blackbiird, Beyonce reimagines the 1968 Beatles hit Blackbird. Written by Paul McCartney, credited to McCartney-Lennon and originally performed by McCartney, Beyonce’s version doesn’t sound country, but with its acoustic guitar combined with a choir and Beyonce’s soaring voice, it’s sure to become a classic.
Bodyguard is a happy sing-along pop standard that’s way more pop than country, but, Hell, don’t tell Bey that. It may not be the biggest hit from the album, but it’s sure to chart.
Jolene is, of course, a reimagined cover of Dolly Parton’s classic 1973 number one Billboard Country hit. Beyonce makes the song her own by giving it a hip-hop spin and it’s already getting a lot of play.
Daughter is one of the best of the bunch as Bey challenges us to reconsider what country music sounds like. The flawless soaring delivery of an Italian aria is as good as it gets. Also a nod to Taylor Swift’s hit Look What You Made Me Do feels like another challenge to the nay-sayin’ country critics. If Swiftie is country, so is Bey!
II Most Wanted is a gender bending, queer friendly, girl-love duet with Miley Cyrus and is sure to be a career high for both. The two deliver smooth and lilting bars that dance together rather than duel. Rolling Stone compares the song to another queererotic classic, saying Miley is “the Sundance Kid to Beyoncé’s Butch Cassidy.”
From American Requiem, right on through to the final Amen, with Cowboy Carter, Beyonce reinvents herself once again and plants her flag on several new genres, demanding we giddy-up and do-si-do! This might just be Bey’s best album of all-time, and one of its many hits could finally earn her record of the year.
Listen to the entire album here…