Here’s a link to Louis’s appearance on the Johnny Cash Show.
A Note About Old Town Road
A look at a Black artist moving into the country would not be complete without looking back at the controversy of Old Town Road, by Lil Nas X, in 2018. After reaching number 19 on the Billboard Country charts, the song was pulled for not fitting the country music genre (it would have hit number one if it had not been pulled). This, of course, sparked a discourse about what is country music (and do you have to be white to be “country”?).
Old Town Road, as it was originally recorded, is definitely a genre-bending country song (the lyrics are a story thematically aligned with the Outlaw Country era, the song is sonically a banjo laid in a trap beat, and Lil Nas X said himself he saw it as a “country trap” song).
But it was threatening I think, primarily, because it threatened the hegemony of country radio control over the market. It was genuinely popular without the radio--that, more than anything, was the reason for the controversy. The country music industry has a tight control over who gets to be popular and like petty deacons everywhere, they want to keep it that way. Even after it was recorded with Billy Ray Cyrus, it never reentered the country music charts.
Do People Need to Be From “The Country” to be a Country Star?
Never in the history of country music. You don’t have to be Black to be invited to the cookout, and you don’t have to be country to be a country music star. What you have to do is have the right vibe, the right story-telling feel, a feel of “authenticity”. What those words mean are fluid and ever-changing and there’s a lot of constant discussion about their meaning—this is all valid and important in any art, it means the genre is healthy and growing. But a lot of people try to use geography or aesthetics to compensate for the lack of vibe. Sometimes we let them.
Black Artists in Country Music
Like I said earlier, I think the cold reception of Beyonce at the 2016 CMT awards had as much to do with her being a Black Country singer as it did the presence of The Chicks, who have never been welcomed back into country music culture, and their overall presence as women in an industry that is so skewered male.
The country music industry is resistant of anything that doesn’t come from deep inside its machine. It’s like that even for white male artists like Tyler Childers, Sturgill Simpson, and Orville Peck—all of whom are so country they have a hard time in country music2). But of course part of the impetuous of an industry made up of white people propping themselves up as arbitrators of taste includes keeping profitable areas of industry away from Black or POC artists.
That being said, country music has always had Black artists. Charlie Pride, The Pointer Sisters, and Linda Martell, for example. In today’s market: Kane Brown, has arguably reached mainstream bro country success. Darius Rucker, the former lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish, has had a successful transition to the country space. Most of them are men: Jimmie Allen, Blanco Brown. But there are several Black women who have had to work twice as hard and carve out their own spaces within a resistant industry, including artists such as Mickey Guyton, Rissi Palmer, Reyna Roberts and Tanner Adell.3 I will note that I don’t think any of those women have reached even remotely the same level of commercial success as their Black male counterparts.
Black Listeners of Country Music
While we’ve romanticized the idea of the white cowboy, cowboys were made up of Black, Indigenous, Meztizos, and Mexicans—so, the idea of cowboy music historically belongs in the hands of their descendants. “However, country hasn’t remained such a white genre and culture by accident, chance, or consumer preference. Nowhere in music do racist systems and practices so closely mirror that of the nation than in the country genre.” (Variety) I for one, am ready for a renassaince of Black ownership of country music.
Cowboy Carter
I know people on twitter hate this album title but it’s genius—it’s her last name (as The Carter’s) and also “The Carter Family” (aka June Carter Cash) was one of the biggest, most foundational acts in country music history. So it’s beautifully clever and legacy building name. Now that we have all the background information for “Cowboy Carter”. let’s take a closer look at the first two singles that were released.
Sixteen Carriages is a classic country ballad story about the ethos of work and labor many people carry for their families in the United States. In this way Beyonce’s confessional lyrics reflect the intimacy of her own experience and the scale of how many people, especially women, especially Black Women, have the same experiences.
It's been umpteen summers and I'm not in my bed
On the back of the bus and a bunk with the band
Goin' so hard, gotta choose myself
Underpaid and overwhelmed
I might cook, clean, but still won't fold
And
Sixteen dollars, workin' all day
Ain't got time to waste, I got art to make
I got love to create on this holy night
They won't dim my light, all these years I fight
What lyrical elements might point toward country culture specifically? The theme of work and labor is a huge presence in country music. I would argue that due to her wealth Beyonce is barred from the kind of “working class” picture of labor usually present in country music, but that doesn’t stop wealthy people from trying. To me this reads as an authentic portrayal of the intense labor she does put into her craft and has since a very young age—and thankfully, a side-step of the pitfall of trying to make that labor seem “working class” (many bros fall into this pitfall).
The motif of “long black road” is a classic country music element, similar to a “long black train” indicating a kind of death, usually spiritual. This reading makes sense alongside the reddit user “xcdevy”’s interpretation of the meaning of the sixteen carriages title and repetition.