On ‘Cowboy Carter,’ Beyoncé Reshapes Country in Her Image
It is a revival, not a reclamation, and Beyoncé is here to cleanse us of our sins. The Bible says in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” And hidden in the midst of Beyoncé’s new album Cowboy Carter, released on Friday, there is a spirit; that of God, but also of Beyoncé, who has appointed herself as music’s lord and savior.
There is no genre she cannot save, and no genre she cannot touch, because they all belong to her. She is their be-all and end-all. Music’s alpha and omega. And a few days before Resurrection Sunday, when practitioners all over the world, but especially in the deep bayous and marshes of the American South, will convene to celebrate the second coming of Christ, Beyoncé, too, has just cause for celebration. Because she has just rewritten the music game in her image.
In the days leading up to Cowboy Carter’s release, the Houston native described her eighth studio effort as a Beyoncé album, not a country album, and she did not tell a lie. The sprawling, 27-track LP begins through the viewpoint of Lady Liberty on “Ameriican Requiem,” because in Beyoncé’s country, she, too, is the first thing you see when you enter America on Ellis Island. There in her braided glory, cigar in her hand, pageant sash around her waist, is how she welcomes you to her United States.