First, Beyonce arrived at the 2024 Grammy Awards in full cowboy regalia -- making a statement without saying a word. Then, during the Super Bowl, she dropped two hybrid country songs: 'Texas Hold 'Em' and '16 Carriages.' All of that heralded her latest album, 'Act ll: Cowboy Carter,' out Friday.
Beyoncé performs at the Wolstein Center, Nov. 4, 2016, in Cleveland, Ohio. Beyoncé is full of surprises — and on Tuesday, March 12, 2024, dropped yet another one. Her forthcoming album has a name: Act II: Cowboy Carter. — First, Beyoncé arrived at the 2024 Grammy Awards in full cowboy regalia — making a statement without saying a word. Then, during the Super Bowl, she dropped two hybrid country songs: “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages.
Beyoncé hails from Houston, a city with a rich musical interplay of “blues and country and hip-hop,” says Francesca T. Royster, a DePaul University professor and author of “Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions.” The hybridized approach of “Daddy Lessons” came two years before Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” would raise similar questions of what kind of artists are embraced by the country music industry when they experiment with different styles.
Critics celebrated the powerful performance, but online, Beyoncé was met with racist backlash and some viewers labeled her “anti-American.” If “Lemonade” established Beyoncé’s dedication to Black empowerment, and her last album, “Act l: Renaissance” is viewed as an exercise in reclaiming House music, on this album, “she is reclaiming the Black roots of country music,” says Martinez. That’s evidenced in the inclusion of banjoist Rhiannon Giddens, whose music and scholarship highlights the contributions of Black Americans in folk and country.
“Country music can’t be country music without Black influences,” she says, pointing out that Hank Williams’ mentor was a Black musician from Alabama named Rufus “Tee Tot” Payne and that the American folk group The Carter Family learned from Lesley Riddle.
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