We just got our first taste of Beyoncé’s country album and she is EATING!
Let’s remind ourselves that Beyoncé is not new to this, she is true to this. No one reps Texas harder than Beyoncé and she was headlong into Country Chic Fashion over twenty years ago. That big-ass hat in “Bugaboo” wasn’t just for show — she was dropping breadcrumbs!
Okay so that’s a stretch, but still. It’s the internet and you can basically say anything here.
On more solid footing though, the standout track from Lemonade was “Daddy Lessons” for me because I did grow up on country music and I’m a huge fan of the genre (even though it is admittedly harder and harder to navigate around the Conservatism with each passing year). On “Daddy Lessons,” I liked that she took country to the bayou and gave it her own razzle dazzle. The country fans who are actual fans of music, as opposed to fans of politicizing and policing Black expression, were on board. The Chicks were on tour at the time and added “Daddy Lessons” to their set within a week of the album’s release.
Beyoncé loves a vocalist, which Natalie Maines certainly is, so it felt natural that they would all get together to formally release a collab. Country radio pushed hard against Beyoncé because, remember, this is the same album whose lead single was “Formation.” This was a few months after she showed up dressed like a Black Panther to the holiest of hallowed Caucasian ground: the astro turf at the Super Bowl. The white gatekeepers of country music were not about to let Blackyoncé into the club, but she still did them a favor and graced the stage of the Country Music Awards just to prove that music is music, and she will outperform your faves in your own house.
Fast forward to the world finding out that Beyoncé’s next project would be three acts, with the first being an ode to house music. I saw the tweets that summer suggesting act ii would be country (with act iii being rock, where Beyoncé would complete a reclamation trilogy of Black music) but I didn’t put much stock into it.
And then Beyoncé showed up to the Grammys dressed like Karen Huger at a rodeo.
Those speculative tweets from a couple of summers ago suddenly held an air of importance. Was this the precursor to something? Is a full era of fashion coming along with the country album? Her outfit at the Super Bowl seemed to confirm:
Big Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader hair and a Texas bolo tie nestled in the tiddies?
So the internet was right. The long-rumored country album is coming and I’m beyond here for it, not just as a country fan, but as a fan of music and Black history in general. Black women are currently kicking at the doors of country to rightfully reclaim the space they once had. Remember, the first female group to win a Grammy for Best Country Performance By a Duo or Group was The Pointer Sisters all the way back in 1974 for “Fairytale.”
Fast forward fifty years and we have more Black women making inroads into the genre than ever before.
Tiera Kennedy gives me straight-forward country radio:
Reyna Roberts throwing a little trap in with her country.
K. Michelle, the first Black female spokesperson for Jack Daniels, puts her storytelling twist on the genre.
Tanner Adell, aka Buckle Bunny, is a singer and a dancer, so if Beyonce needs another blonde bombshell for a remix:
Baltimore-born Brittney Spencer released one of my all-time favorite country songs a couple of years ago.
And we can’t forget Mickey Guyton, who became the first Black woman ever nominated for the Best Country Solo Performance Grammy a few years ago with “Black Like Me.”
If ever there was a time for Beyoncé to use her star power and visionary genius to kick the door down of a genre full of new talent nibbling around the edges, it’s now. This ain’t Texas. This is Beyoncé .
Leave a Reply