Celebrating "Cowboy Carter"
Beyonce's latest album has a lot of people in a tizzy. Bravo!
Beyonce’s foray into country music entitled “Cowboy Carter” has been the subject of discussion and controversy.
Country music purists have weighed in and have expressed their reservations.
“It’s not country music.”
“Beyonce is not a country music artist.”
“No one should sing Jolene but Dolly Parton.”
When a musician like Beyonce crosses over into other genres, there is always pushback.
But when a Black musician attempts to record an album in what’s considered a White genre, the pushback is multiplied a thousandfold.
Beyonce knew she was stirring the pot when she made this record.
But that was the point.
For too long, so-called music purists and out-and-out racists have been having their cake and eating it.
They are fine with White musicians recording music in so-called Black music genres but are apoplectic when Black musicians record music in so-called White genres.
Many people routinely box others into narrowly defined spaces.
They develop rigid definitions, and because of their rigidity, biases, and prejudices, they are prepared to fight to the death when someone blurs, if not erases, their firmly drawn lines of demarcation.
“Cowboy Carter” was likely set into motion by when Beyonce performed her song “Daddy Lessons” with the Chicks at the 50th Country Music Association Awards in 2016.
While many enjoyed the performance, it was clear that someone pegged as a hip/hop/R&B (i.e., Black) singer performing a country song at a country music awards ceremony was too much.
The CMA removed all of their promotional posts about her performance, and when it came time for the Recording Academy’s country music committee to select songs to be nominated for Grammy Awards, “Daddy Lessons” was reported vetoed because it wasn’t “country enough.”
Interesting that just one-year prior, White soul/pop singer Justin Timberlake performed a medley of “Tennessee Whiskey/Drink You Away with country singer Chris Stapelton and not only was the performance not considered controversial, but it was also uniformly praised.
The reaction to the Daddy Lessons performance on the CMAs was a sufficient reason for Queen Bey to demonstrate that she could record a country album, while providing much needed enlightenment in the process.
Beyonce understands what many people in the country music industry do not.
She understands that it’s past time to set the record straight about country music.
The notion that country music is made for White listeners and should only made by White people is ludicrous.
Why?
Because there is no American music genre that has not been influenced by Black people.
There isn’t much argument about most American music genres like jazz, blues, gospel, rhythm & blues, rap, and hip-hop. All of those sub-categories began and are largely maintained by Black musicians. They have been expanded and added to by White musicians, but inarguably began as Black artforms.
Rock-n-roll is not a White music genre. The fact that the term “rock-n-roll” is a blues euphemism for intercourse should be enough proof, but the music of Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, and Little Richard more concretely demonstrates the truth.
As for country music, no American music genre has been so ruthlessly segregated.
Charley Pride, the first and only Black country music superstar, told of his encounters with racism in the industry before his 2020 passing.
Black country music singer Linda Martell even appeared on Hee-Haw, but finally gave up on a singing career because of the roadblocks she encountered (more on her later).
The irony of this systemic racism is that 1) Black people help to create country music, and 2) Black people are some of country music’s biggest fans.
When you examine country music’s pioneers, you don’t have to look far to find Black fingerprints all over so-called White music.
Take Jimmie Rodgers, considered by many to be country music’s first successful solo artist.
Reading the titles of some of his original compositions give ample proof of his inspiration. Song titles like “TB Blues,” “Travelin’ Blues,” and “Train Whistle Blues” indicate that Rodgers was greatly influenced by Black blues music.
Listening to his songs, he often sings about his mistreatment in big cities and by women in particular, and how he’s going to buy a gun and get revenge – a popular blues music trope.
The only difference between Rodgers’ music and blues singers is his frequent yodeling.
On the women’s side, “Mother” Maybelle Carter was the first popular female country vocalist and the matriarch of the Carter Family, the first widely popular country music group.
She is considered a pioneer because she was one of the first recorded female guitarists in any musical genre and one of the musicians most responsible for the guitar becoming a lead instrument in popular music.
Her guitar playing, and many of the songs The Carter Family played, were influenced by Black singer/guitarist Lesley Riddle.
Riddle spent a considerable amount of time with the family, even traveling through the South with A.P. Carter learning songs, and he directly influenced Maybelle’s unique guitar playing style.
Songs that Riddle wrote and sung that were recorded by the Carter Family include "Cannonball Blues," "Hello Stranger," "I Know What It Means to Be Lonesome," "Let the Church Roll On," "Bear Creek Blues," "March Winds Goin' Blow My Blues Away" and "Lonesome for You.”
Even many instruments found primarily in country music have Black roots.
The banjo was first seen in this hemisphere in the 1600s. Enslaved people from African were the first people in North America to play these instruments, which were native to their lost homelands. During the minstrel show era, the banjo grew in popularity and White musicians began to play the instrument, and subsequently became a staple of country music.
But its roots were in Africa, played by Black people.
Black and White musicians created country music. It is not proprietary to any race.
Since country music began, it has enjoyed the patronage of all kinds of people, including Black people.
If you are Black and from the South, you either love country music, or have relatives and friends who do.
My grandmother loved country music, and Eddy Arnold in particular, which made sense she was born and grew up in rural Monticello, Georgia.
As a child, I did not appreciate watching Hee-Haw every Saturday evening as we were eating dinner, but we did.
It wasn’t until I was an adult, and explored all kinds of musical styles that I realized that I enjoyed country music.
For male country music singers, I’m a fan of Charley Pride, John Denver, Jim Reeves, Darius Rucker, and like my grandmother, Eddy Arnold.
For female country music singers, I love Dolly Parton, Kacey Musgraves, Carlene Carter, Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, among others.
(I also enjoy the music of female artists like Maren Morris and Cassadee Pope, who have found the country music scene too repressive, and are venturing out into more pop/rock territory.)
I’m also beginning to explore the music of Black female country artists like Linda Martell, who both performs and is mentioned by Beyonce on “Cowboy Carter.” Beyonce included a number of contemporary Black female country artists including Rhiannon Giddens, Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts, and others.
There will always be gatekeepers that try to segregate music.
But some people are able to surmount manmade boundaries by sheer force of will and talent.
Beyonce is one of those people.
You don’t have to like “Cowboy Carter.”
You don’t have to like Beyonce.
You don’t have to like country music.
But you have to admire someone who won’t take no for an answer.
Country music doesn’t have to accept Beyonce.
But it shouldn’t try to get in her way.