Beyoncé’s eighth studio album, COWBOY CARTER is taking the world by storm with its top-
notch songwriting and production, as well as incredible commercial success. The critically
acclaimed record is expected to land at No. 1 on several countries for the tracking week,
particularly in major markets worldwide.
The album arrives following the successful release of two lead singles, “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM”
and “16 CARRIAGES.”
“TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” landed across nine different genres on US music charts including Pop,
Hot AC, Country, Rhythmic, Urban, and R&B, and making history with Beyoncé becoming the
first Black female artist to reach No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart and No. 1 on the Hot
100 Chart with a Country song. It also spent four weeks at the top of the UK music charts.
COWBOY CARTER, executive produced by Beyoncé, is about genres, all of them, while
deeply rooted in Country. This is the work of an artist who thrives in her freedom to grow,
expand, and create limitlessly. It makes no apologies, and seeks no permission in elevating,
amplifying, and redefining the sounds of music, while dismantling accepted false norms about
Americana culture. It pays homage to the past, honoring musical pioneers in Country, Rock,
Classical, and Opera.
The album is a cornucopia of sounds that Beyoncé loves, and grew up listening to, between
visits and eventually performances at the Houston Rodeo – Country, original Rhythm & Blues,
Blues, Zydeco, and Black Folk. The album wraps itself in pure instrumentation in a
celebratory authentic gumbo of sounds using among others, the accordion, harmonica,
washboard, acoustic guitar, bass ukulele, pedal steel guitar, a Vibra-Slap, the mandolin,
fiddle, Hammond B3 organ, tack piano, and the banjo. There’s also plenty of handclaps,
horseshoe steps, boot stomps on hardwood floors and yes, those are Beyoncé’s nails as
percussion.
“The joy of creating music is that there are no rules,” says Beyoncé. “The more I see the
world evolving the more I felt a deeper connection to purity. With artificial intelligence and
digital filters and programming, I wanted to go back to real instruments, and I used very old
ones. I didn’t want some layers of instruments like strings, especially guitars, and organs
perfectly in tune. I kept some songs raw and leaned into folk. All the sounds were so organic
and human, everyday things like the wind, snaps and even the sound of birds and chickens,
the sounds of nature.”
And the inspiration further takes into account Southern and Western culture beyond music,
the Rodeo, Western films, and the stories of the original cowboys of the West. It was at the
Rodeo where she first saw diversity and camaraderie among people who love Country music
and an Americana lifestyle, steeped in community, culinary offerings, grills, and Western gear.
And it was for everyone. Among the crowds were Black, Hispanic and Native American
Cowboys, who made their valuable, authentic allowances to the culture. Their stories are
synonymous with American history.
The music is wrapped around an outpouring of passionate, bold storytelling that captivates the
listener with Beyoncé’s familiar, powerful voice at the center. Her vocals shine a blinding light
on a narrative steeped in truth-telling, revealing hidden histories, and reveling in all the magic
you seek when you take an intentional journey back to your roots. Beyoncé is a student of
history, and she continues the American music masterclass that started with act i
RENAISSANCE in 2022, that was a deep dive into dance music and its creators, and the
celebration of those who lived in joy despite being made to feel like outliers.
On COWBOY CARTER the work of an artist who created on her own terms, in the absence of
rules, persists boldly. The songs caress, cradle, and encourage the listener’s curiosity
through 27 gifts of revolutionary surprises, erasing the limitations placed on genre-based
music. As a producer, Beyoncé explores and experiments with chord and key changes
effortlessly mixing genres, bending, and blending the unexpected to break down every wall of
musical confinement. It is a rare body of work that could so seamlessly hosts remakes of
classics like “BLACKBIIRD” by The Beatles and “JOLENE” by Dolly Parton with sonically
diverse creations like “SWEET HONEY BUCKIN,” “RIIVER DANCE” and “II MOST WANTED.”
“My process is that I typically have to experiment,” Beyoncé says. “I enjoy being open to have
the freedom to get all aspects of things I love out and so I worked on many songs. I recorded
probably 100 songs. Once that is done, I am able to put the puzzle together and realize the
consistencies and the common themes, and then create a solid body of work.”
The album is an experiment indeed. Each song is its own version of a reimagined Western
film. She took inspiration from films like “Five Fingers For Marseilles,” “Urban Cowboy,” “The
Hateful Eight, “Space Cowboys,” “The Harder They Fall” and “Killers of the Flower Moon,”
often having the films playing on a screen during the recording process. Some aspects of the
percussion were inspired by the ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’ soundtrack, where it was more
Bluegrass. This body of work undulates from singing cowboy and Blaxploitation to Spaghetti
westerns and fantasy with Beyoncé weaving between personal experiences, honoring Black
history, to exaggerated character building. The limited-edition vinyl depicts a microphone in
the shape of a gun ala Thelma and Louise running from the law, but the gun is invisible, hyper
exaggerated reality.
The character, Cowboy Carter was birth from these experiences and inspired by the original
Black cowboys of the American West. The word cowboy itself was used in a derogatory way
to describe the former slaves as “boys,” who were the most skilled and had the hardest jobs of
handling horses and cattle, alike. In destroying the negative connotation, what remains is the
strength and resiliency of these men who were the true definition of Western fortitude.
While RENAISSANCE was a stated rebirth after the Pandemic, COWBOY CARTER is a
declarative frequency and academic shift, as the world prepares to shift again, that redefines
and rebuilds what is Country and Americana, and who gets to be included. The album opens
with “AMERIICAN REQUIEM,” a hymn-like alarm that incinerates old ideas about art and the
people who create it.
Beyoncé ensconced herself with a stellar group of collaborators, including The-Dream,
Pharrell, NO I.D., Raphael Saadiq, Ryan Tedder, Ryan Beatty, Swizz Beatz, Khirye Tyler,
Derek Dixie, Ink, Nova Wav, Mamii, Cam, Tyler Johnson, Dave Hamelin, and Shawn “JAY-Z”
Carter to find the secret gems in each song. The process, sometimes years in the making,
often meant combining pieces of different recordings, changing the instrumentation here,
adding a snare there, to land at the perfect spot in the right time.
“This album took over five years,” she says. “It’s been really great to have the time and the
grace to be able to take my time with it. I was initially going to put COWBOY CARTER out
first, but with the pandemic, there was too much heaviness in the world. We wanted to dance.
We deserved to dance. But I had to trust God’s timing.”
And the musical alliance here includes contributions from an impressive list of artists as
vocalists, musicians, and orators, including Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Linda Martell, Stevie
Wonder, Chuck Berry, Mylie Cyrus, Post Malone, Jon Batiste, Rhiannon Giddens, Nile
Rodgers, Robert Randolph, Gary Clark, Jr., Willie Jones, Brittney Spencer, Shaboozey,
Reyna Roberts, Tanner Adell and Tiera Kennedy.
COWBOY CARTER is the musical concoction you did not expect from the world’s most
innovative artist and producer, who has made it the norm to push the boundaries in delivering
art that challenges the senses. It’s about culture, legacy, and a critical addition to the
American songbook from the most important and creative talent in a Century.
“I think people are going to be surprised because I don’t think this music is what everyone
expects,” Beyoncé says, “but it’s the best music I’ve ever made.”
Beyoncé’s COWBOY CARTER is available now via Parkwood Entertainment, Columbia
Records and Sony Music Entertainment.
COWBOY CARTER TRACK LIST:
1. AMERIICAN REQUIEM
2. BLACKBIIRD
3. 16 CARRIAGES
4. PROTECTOR
5. MY ROSE
6. SMOKE HOUR ★ WILLIE NELSON
7. TEXAS HOLD ‘EM
8. BODYGUARD
9. DOLLY P
10. JOLENE
11. DAUGHTER
12. SPAGHETTII
13. ALLIIGATOR TEARS
14. SMOKE HOUR II
15. JUST FOR FUN
16. II MOST WANTED
- LEVII’S JEANS
- FLAMENCO
- The LINDA MARTELL SHOW
- YA YA
- OH LOUISIANA
- DESERT EAGLE
- RIIVER DANCE
- II HANDS II HEAVEN
- TYRANT
- SWEET ★ HONEY ★ BUCKIIN’
- AMEN
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Album cover photo photographed by Blair Caldwell
Available here: https://beyonce.lnk.to/cowboycarter
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About Parkwood Entertainment
Parkwood Entertainment is a film and production company, record label and management firm
founded by entertainer and entrepreneur, Beyoncé in 2010. With offices in Los Angeles and
New York City, the company houses departments in music, film, video, live performances and
concert production, management, business development, marketing, digital, creative,
philanthropy, and publicity. Under its original name, Parkwood Pictures, the company released
the film Cadillac Records (2008), in which Beyoncé starred and co-produced. The company has
also released the films Obsessed (2009), with Beyoncé as star and executive producer, the
winner of the Peabody Award for Entertainment, Lemonade (2017), the Emmy®-nominated
Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé (2019), which documents Beyoncé’s history-making
performance at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in 2018, and the Emmy®-winning
Black Is King (2020). Parkwood Entertainment produced The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour
(2013-2014), The Formation World Tour (2016), and the aforementioned “Homecoming”
performances at Coachella (2018) and co-produced the ON THE RUN Tour (2014) and ON
THE RUN II (2018), and the RENAISSANCE WORLD TOUR (2023).
About Sony Music Entertainment
At Sony Music Entertainment, we honor the creative journey. Our creators shape movements,
culture, communities, even history. And we’ve played a pioneering role in music history, from
establishing the first-ever music label to inventing the flat disc record. We’ve nurtured some of
music’s most iconic artists and produced some of the most influential recordings of all time.
Today, we work in more than 100 countries, supporting a diverse and distinctive roster of
talented creators at every level and on every stage. Situated at the intersection of music,
entertainment, and technology, we bring imagination and expertise to emerging products and
platforms, embrace new business models, and employ breakthrough tools—all to support the
creative community’s experimentation, risk-taking, and growth. And we form deep, trusted,
cause-based partnerships to uplift and empower communities around the world. Sony Music
Entertainment is part of the global Sony family. Learn more about our creators and labels here.
