Beyonce goes Country with help from Dolly Parton… and I love it! ADRIAN THRILLS reviews the pop icon’s Cowboy Carter album as she goes back to her rodeo roots
Beyoncé: Cowboy Carter
Verdict: Back to her rodeo roots
After establishing herself as one of the world’s biggest pop stars, Beyonce Knowles is now adding another string – a twangy, made in Nashville – to her mighty bow.
Cowboy Carter is her first full-length foray into country music and, to drive home the point, the album cover features her as a Stetson-wearing rodeo queen perched (side saddle) atop a large white horse.
“I got people in Galveston, rooted in Louisiana,” she drawls about the American Requiem (the unusual spelling is hers).
“They always said I spoke too country.”
After establishing herself as one of the biggest pop stars in the world, Beyonce Knowles is now adding one more string – a twangy, made in Nashville – to her mighty bow
It’s an opening gambit that sets the tone for an epic 80-minute gallop through American music history that at times feels more like a series of themes from a Western-oriented stage blockbuster than a pop album – but still sets the bar high.
Cowboy Carter is her first full-length foray into country music and, to drive home the point, the album cover shows her as a Stetson-wearing rodeo queen, perched (side saddle) atop a large white horse.
It’s an opening gambit that sets the tone for an epic, 80-minute gallop through American music history that at times feels more like a series of themes from a Western-oriented stage blockbuster than a pop album – but still sets the bar high.
Texas native Beyonce, 42, made a name for herself with the slick R&B trio Destiny’s Child, but her earliest musical memories were visiting the Houston Rodeo, where she was exposed to country music, folk and 1950s rhythm and blues.
She sang there four times and was inspired as much by Southern fashion and culture as by music.
Cowboy Carter certainly has a kaleidoscopic range of sounds.
Instead of the electronic dance rhythms that fueled the 2022 Renaissance, we have soft acoustic strumming, pedal steel guitar, accordion, harmonica, washboard, fiddle and banjo.
There are hand claps, boot stomps on wooden floors… and Beyoncé’s long nails as a percussion instrument.
This is not a complete national record. The genre-hopping singer is keen to point out that it’s simply ‘a Beyonce album’ and – amid the cheers and fiddles – there are moves into country rock and reminders of her background in R&B and dance.
Texas native Beyonce, 42, made a name for herself with the slick R&B trio Destiny’s Child, but her earliest musical memories were visiting the Houston Rodeo, where she was exposed to country music, folk and 1950s rhythm and blues.
Cowboy Carter certainly has a kaleidoscopic range of sounds
Instead of the electronic dance rhythms that fueled the 2022 Renaissance, we have soft acoustic strumming, pedal steel guitar, accordion, harmonica, washboard, violin and banjo
There are hand claps, boot stomps on wooden floors… and Beyoncé’s long nails as a percussion instrument
Its Southern reputation is reinforced by performances by Nashville greats Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton, but she powerfully stamps her own identity throughout.
The core is that powerful, versatile voice. She shines on acoustic hoedown Texas Hold ‘Em and, on the other hand, delivers a harmoniously infused cover of Paul McCartney’s Blackbird from The Beatles’ White Album, which was partly inspired by racial segregation in 1960s America.
Dolly Parton’s spoken word intermezzo (“Hey miss Honey B, it’s Dolly P”) precedes a version of the country icon’s classic Jolene.
The clear template here is Whitney Houston’s powerful 1992 cover of Ms Parton’s I Will Always Love You, and Beyonce doesn’t disappoint, adding lyrical and musical twists.
Cowboy Carter loses some edge as he enters the home straight.
Ya Ya opens with a sample of Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ and transitions into Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys, while dance track II Hands II Heaven could be an outtake from Renaissance.
But you can’t fault his ambition. “The nice thing about making music is that there are no rules,” says Beyoncé.
If there was any doubt about her latest exercise in confounding expectations, she dispels them in the best way possible – by co-writing some fantastic songs and delivering them with dazzling aplomb.