Beyoncé Cowboy Carter: Country album drops - here's what to expect

Pop megastar Beyoncé has broken down more barriers with the release of her eight studio album - the country music-styled Cowboy Carter. The long player is included in the charts across a whopping nine genres, including pop, country, urban and R&B, with sales making her the first black female artist to reach the top spot in the Hot Country Songs chart.

The new album, executive produced by Beyoncé, is billed as being about genres, with a pervasive country theme, the result of an artist thriving in her creative freedom. "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."

A bio review of the record said: "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, honouring 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."

Far from the usual pop fare of synthesisers, drum machines and guitars, sounds leading the way on Cowboy Carter include 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," Beyoncé said. "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."

Southern and Western culture beyond music are also referenced, including the Rodeo, Westerns, and the stories of the original cowboys. 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, she says, with the crowds made up of Black, Hispanic and Native American Cowboys. Their stories are synonymous with American history.

At the heart of it all is Beyoncé's familiar, powerful voice. "Her vocals shine a blinding light on a narrative steeped in truth-telling, revealing hidden histories, and revelling in all the magic you seek when you take an intentional journey back to your roots," the PR review adds.

"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."

Legends such as The Beatles and Dolly Parton are also included, with remakes of classics from their catalogues. "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."

She took inspiration from films like Five Fingers For Marseilles, Urban Cowboy, The Hateful Eight and Killers of the Flower Moon, with the films often playing on a screen during the recording process.

In the making of Cowboy Carter, 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 of course, 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."