Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour reminds us that Black artists are at the roots of country music

As Beyoncé kicks off her Cowboy Carter world tour, her embrace of country music is reigniting conversations about the genre’s Black roots—and the pioneers too often left out of its history.

Since Beyoncé previewed Cowboy Carter during her Super Bowl commercial and released the album in March 2024—the second act of her Renaissance trilogy—the cultural response has been electric. The Grammy-winning album spotlights the long-erased contributions of Black musicians to country music and has sparked renewed curiosity in that legacy.

“It’s awakened such a discussion,” says Francesca Royster, an English professor at DePaul University and author of the 2022 book Black Country Music. “Students, friends, old friends from college have been calling, wanting to talk about this topic that, for a long time, has felt like a closet obsession.”

While many contemporary music listeners’ first experience with Black country music came with Lil’ Nas X’s 2018 “country-trap” novelty hit “Old Town Road,” Black folks have been writing, performing, and recording country music since it first became popular in the 1920s. In fact, country music wouldn’t exist as it does today without the contributions and innovations of Black musicians.

“One of the biggest lies this nation has ever told is that Black people are not country,” wrote culture critic Taylor Crumpton in the days following Beyoncé’s announcement. “Black people have always lived in the country. It is where we prayed. It is where we sang. It is where we worshiped.”

As more young and emerging Black country artists receive critical attention and accolades, there’s hope that this represents a step toward a more inclusive representation of country music—rather than just a passing trend.

How Black artists shaped country music

The presence of Black folks in country music, while not quite universally acknowledged, is not exactly a secret. The Carter Family, often called the “First Family of Country Music,” drew heavily on the playing style of Lesley Riddle, a Black blues and gospel guitarist and folklorist. As a boy in the 1930s, Hank Williams learned from Black guitar player Rufus “Tee Tot” Payne, just as Johnny Cash would later learn from musician Gus Cannon.

Black harmonica player DeFord Bailey was the first performer on the Grand Ole Opry and helped turn Nashville into a country music mecca. Thanks to the tireless advocacy work of musicians Rhiannon Giddens and Dom Flemons, we know about the banjo’s African roots and its prominence in early Black folk music. Plus, musicians such as Charley Pride and Darius Rucker broke numerous barriers as two of the first African American country music superstars.

But what isn’t as often acknowledged is how Black singers, across all genres, have historically dabbled in country. Beyoncé is by no means the first. Ray Charles, Solomon Burke, Bobby Womack, Esther Philips, Otis Williams, Millie Jackson, and Tina Turner (to name a few) have recorded country albums. More recently, rap and R&B artists Ludacris, LL Cool J, Nelly, and Snoop Dogg have each collaborated with country music superstars. Still, the myth that Black people aren’t part of country culture has persisted.

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“As a country music fan, I did not feel safe in country music spaces,” says Black Opry founder Holly G. “It is not confusing to me that Black people have been hesitant to come into this space.”

For decades, the country music industry—and many white fans—have reinforced exclusion, whether through decisions about who gets charted, who gets airplay, or the continued presence of Confederate flags at festivals (a practice only recently banned).

Meet the Black artists redefining country music

Launched in 2021, Black Opry began as a website highlighting Black country, folk, and Americana artists. A year later, Holly and Tanner Davenport cofounded the Black Opry Revue, an artist collective that performs around the U.S.

“I’m hoping that now, their eyes will be opened to the fact that there is a way to consume it safely and with people who look like you,” says Holly.

Holly remembers how, in the months before starting Black Opry, she would search online for ‘Black country artists,’ and the same few names would appear. Even today, most media attention continues to fall on a handful of megastars—Kane Brown, Mickey Guyton, and Darius Rucker—but today’s field of Black country music is manifold.

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While emerging artists like Dalton Dover, Michael Warren, Chauncey Jones, Rodell Duff, and Aaron Vance skew toward a more traditional and acoustic country sound, other singers such as Breland, Willie Jones, RVSHVD, and Tanner Adell are melding trap and R&B elements with country—a musical alchemy that can be heard on Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em.”

Twenty-seven-year-old singer and songwriter Reyna Roberts—who borrows equally from country, rock, and pop—attributes her distinctive sound to the broad scope of music she’d been exposed to as a child. “I grew up listening to country, trap, hip hop, classical music, pop, everything,” she says. “But, as a songwriter, I realized that a lot of the songs I was writing were country songs.” 

Roberts says she’s seen a dramatic increase in listeners and social media followers following Beyoncé’s Super Bowl announcement, gaining close to 400,000 new followers.

Other Black female country and roots artists, like Adell, who released the trap-country “Buckle Bunny” in the summer of 2023, and Linda Martell, the first black female solo artist to play the Grand Ole Opry, have also seen sharp increases in streams and downloads since 2023.

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Black Opry’s Holly G. remains cautiously optimistic that Beyoncé’s visibility will encourage fans and industry leaders alike to recognize the deep bench of Black talent in country music today.

“There’s so much diversity even within Black country music,” she says, “and that’s what I hope people are eventually able to see and take away from this.”