Ok for full disclosure I’m not really a Beyonce fan. I’m just not but that is not to say she isn’t a hugely talented artist, I’m just not her usual target audience.
I kept hearing on tv and radio as well as reading about the backlash of supposed country fans that were outraged that Beyonce was trapezing on the sacred grounds of country music. I don’t know if the stories were all true or manufactured to get the publicity for the upcoming album. I can only tell you what I think of the album, it’s ah..it’s just okay, nothing more.
I know what your thinking, “your just another rock guy that doesn’t understand country music”. Well your wrong. I grew up in a house where WSLR was on all day. Dolly Parton, Porter Wagner, Conway Twitty and as my grandmother would call them, the “hippies” Johnny Cash, Willie and Waylan were all ingrained in my fabric. I think that is probably why when I was listening to Deep Purple, Traffic, Zeppelin and Humble Pie in the early 70’s I was always drawn to the Marshall Tucker Band, The Flying Burrito Brothers and New Riders Of The Purple Sage. I like country music, I always have. Nowadays I love listening to Chris Stapleton, Zac Brown Band, Luke Combs and I’m even liking Jelly Roll.
As far as Cowboy Carter, it’s just not that good musically. I know according to all of the other music news sources this is supposed to be a groundbreaking album that I’m supposed to love but is really? Can you really compare it to Modern Sounds Of Country And Western Music by Ray Charles or The Pride Of Country Music by Charlie Pride to name two actual groundbreaking albums? The answer is no. Ray Charles moved from R&B and in 1962 decided I’m gonna give this a try and went out and created a masterpiece. Even though the audiences were radically different, Charles didn’t think that R&B and country music were that different. In an interview with Ben Fong Torres of Rolling Stone he said about the two music genres “The words to country songs are very earthy like the blues, see, very down. They’re not as dressed up, and the people are very honest and say, ‘Look, I miss you, darlin’, so I went out and I got drunk in this bar.’ That’s the way you say it. Where in Tin Pan Alley will say, ‘Oh, I missed you darling, so I went to this restaurant and I sat down and I had dinner for one.’ That’s cleaned up now, you see? But country songs and the blues is like it is.”
Cowboy Carter to me sounds like a Beyonce album, not a country album, okay there is a little more twang in her voice and a lot more steel pedal guitar in the music but it’s not a country album. Maybe that is how they should have packaged it but controversy gets people talking even before the album is released. As far as the music, I listened to it twice and only one track caught my attention, Alligator Tears. It’s a good song, again not great but decent. The second time I listened to it I could have sworn the music track was really close to Cripple Creek by the Eagles off the Desperado album. Maybe that’s why I kinda liked it.
Overall the album is going to do great. Beyonce fans will love it and people that think they have to love it will say they do but the two listens I gave it will be the last for me.
