Yeehaw or nah? The verdict on Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ collabs with Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and more
Honey B, meet Dolly P.
Without singing a single note, Dolly Parton is the extra-special guest on “Cowboy Carter,” Beyoncé’s just-dropped country album that flips the script on the usual Nashville narrative.
And the Queen of Country’s cameo couldn’t come at a more perfect place than the “Dolly P” intro to Honey B’s cover of her certified classic “Jolene,” which recently turned 50.
“Hey Miss Honey B, it’s Dolly P,” says Parton, 79, with all her familiar, down-home warmth.
“You know that hussy with the good hair you sing about?” she continues, referencing the infamous, man-stealing “Becky” from “Lemonade” standout “Sorry.”
“Reminding me of someone I knew back when/Except she has flamin’ locks of auburn hair … Just a hair of a different color, but it hurts just the same.”
Then Bey takes the mic to deliver a soulful, acoustic-guitar-strumming rendition of Parton’s seminal hit — which, after being released in October 1973, went on to top the country chart as the title track of the singer’s 1974 album.
Although it is as country as country gets, there is a bit of a hip-hop thump behind the propulsive beat to let you know that this is still very much a Beyoncé album.
And after all the ballroom house beats of the first act of “Renaissance” — which came out in July 2022 — this is Bey unplugged, raw and rootsy, breaking down how betrayal knows no color before a whoop-ass choir backs her up at the end.
But Parton isn’t the only country legend who — after Beyoncé hinted that she was not “welcomed” when she performed “Daddy Lessons” with the Chicks at the CMA Awards in 2016 — co-signs on “Cowboy Carter.”
O.G. outlaw Willie Nelson appears in two interludes — “Smoke Hour” and “Smoke Hour II” — as the host of a radio show on KNTRY in Beyoncé’s native Texas.
The first interlude digs into the black roots of country music, while the second breaks down Bey’s mission to bring country music back to black people — with the banjo itself having a lineage that traces back to Africa.
“Sometimes you don’t know what you like/And then someone you trust turns you on to some real good s—t,” says the weed-smoking icon — ever the rascal at 90 —as he introduces “Just for Fun,” Beyoncé’s duet with the black country upstart Willie Jones.
Other guests on “Cowboy Carter” — “Act II” of Bey’s “Renaissance” trilogy — include other African-American artists who are two-stepping across color lines in country music.
Tanner Addell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy and Reyna Roberts back B up on her countrified cover of The Beatles classic “Blackbird,” making like Destiny’s Southern Child.
Meanwhile, Linda Martell — the first black woman to play the Grand Ole Opry in 1969 — receives cross-generational love on two interludes, including “The Linda Martell Show.”
And — move over, Blue Ivy — Rumi Carter, Beyoncé’s 6-year-old daughter with husband Jay-Z, gets her close-up at the beginning of “Protector.”
But “Cowboy Carter” doesn’t discriminate: Two of the biggest white pop stars today – Miley Cyrus (“II Most Wanted”) and Post Malone (“Levii’s Jeans”) — are also invited to this genre-busting hoedown.
