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Post Malone made a surprise appearance at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium Wednesday (April 3) night. He helped close out the annual Bobby Bones‘ Million Dollar Show, spearheaded by radio and television personality Bobby Bones (of iHeartRadio’s The Bobby Bones Show) and his band, The Raging Idiots. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, […]
Heard as a song about a random woman, Ashley McBryde’s new single, “The Devil I Know,” seems to capture a headstrong personality who embraces her imperfections, although it’s unclear whether that’s because she’s emotionally healthy or she’s just intellectually lazy.
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But heard as it’s intended – as a reflection of McBryde’s own rebellious path to self-determination – “The Devil” is more like Hank Williams’ “Mind Your Own Business,” an aural middle finger to the peanut gallery.
“It doesn’t matter what you do,” McBryde says, “somebody’s gonna have something to say about it.”
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Few people receive as much feedback as an artist – from managers, label executives, family members, music critics, fans and radio stations, all of whom have a vested interest in getting a reaction.
“It’s just tricky,” says songwriter-producer Jeremy Stover (Justin Moore, Travis Denning). “Even though those outside forces are around, you gotta keep plowing, and trusting yourself, and trusting the people that you trust the most.”
Two, maybe three, years ago, McBryde put some trust in Stover and fellow songwriter Bobby Pinson (“Burning Man,” “All I Want To Do”), writing “The Devil I Know” at Stover’s second-floor office on Nashville’s Music Row. Pinson had the set-up line and the hook – “Hell, there’s hell everywhere I go/ I’m just stickin’ with the devil I know” – and it naturally resonated with everyone in the room, though they had to figure out exactly what it meant.
“We were in D, the people’s key, and just kind of throwing things out,” McBryde remembers.
All three writers banged around on their guitars as the song found its direction, both musically and lyrically. Pinson, as McBryde recalls it, took the lead with the melody and chords, and he was determined to overcome having the devil in the title. “I like to have a melody mapped out that sounds like a hit,” he says. “It doesn’t matter what good words you put in if the melody is not a hit melody, especially in a song like this, where the title can work against you in a world where we hope there’s more God than devil.”
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McBryde recalled the negative reactions she received as a female playing a bar in Bardstown, Ky., as a teenager, and how she was determined to follow her own course. She changed the city to Elizabethtown – “I thought it would sound a little nicer and float along a little better,” she explains – and by the end of the first verse, she demonstrated how she grew to “like my brand of hurtin’.”
As they jumped into the chorus, the rebel spirit really took over: “Mama says get my ass to church” is a phrase that scoffs at religious conventions. “Daddy says get my ass to work” was the natural sequel. “When you got ‘Mama,’ if you follow it with ‘Daddy,’ you can’t say the same thing,” Stover quips. “That’s kind of hillbilly logic.”
That chorus continued to acknowledge the outside voices until it reached its self-guided premise, “I’m stickin’ with the devil I know.”
“For me, living and getting it right is kind of like skiing,” Pinson says. “You can have a professional skier tell you how to do it, you can have your friends tell you how to do it, you can have your loved ones tell you how to ski, but at the end of the day, you take a little cart up the hill, and if you get down unbroken, you skied. And that’s kind of what living is. It’s like how do I want to fall? Do I want to fall going down this mountain? Or do I want to fall going over this cliff? I’ll stick with the devil I know.”
The second verse shifted from professional pursuits to romantic choices, embracing a rocky relationship that ultimately matches two fiery people who understand each other at their foundation. Before the day was over, they fashioned a guitar/vocal work tape with a fair amount of finger picking, though McBryde had no intention of keeping that quasi-folk sound.
“I knew that the song had more teeth than that,” she says, “so when the band and I got together in pre-production before going to the studio to play the song, we knew that at least in that chorus, we wanted to do those big [heavy notes]. And we weren’t sure how much else we could get away with. Luckily, our producer is Jay Joyce (Eric Church, Brothers Osborne). And so he said, ‘Not only can you get away with that, you can get away with way more.’”
They referenced Steve Earle’s “Copperhead Road” as the level of power and rawness that they could infuse into “The Devil,” and when they set about the actual recording date at Joyce’s Neon Cross Studio, they were ready for a production that evolves from easy-going to raucous. “We spent quite a bit of time hammering out that arrangement,” Joyce says. “It didn’t come together easily, but it was worth the journey.”
At least two acoustic guitars create a rhythmic soup for the intro, and as the sound becomes increasingly tough, McBryde came up with a five-note segue for the chorus that emphasizes that change. It’s a quiet, acoustic background figure in the opening chorus, though it becomes a vocal-and-rock-guitar unison thing in later moments. Guitarist Matt Helmkamp enhanced the performance with a brief-but-searing solo.
“Matt does with guitar solos what we do with lyrics,” McBryde says. “It’s not like he’s playing what the lyrics are in his solo. He’s playing what it felt like when we wrote the lyrics. The ‘eeergh’ and the ‘dammit’ that you feel when you’re writing – that frustration – he can capture that in his solos. And I’m glad he doesn’t know how good he is.”
When McBryde tackled her final vocals, Joyce surprised her by having her do a pass 10 feet away from a telescope microphone. She thought it would be a background effect. Instead, it became a filtered, distant lead voice that dominated the first chorus, pulling the intensity back at a spot where the tendency for most producers would be to amp up the energy.
To McBryde, it makes that chorus feel like an internal monologue. To Joyce, it was just a different texture with no specific interpretation. “Usually, if you change the scenery, the listener will put it together in their own sort of way,” he reasons.
“The Devil I Know” became the title track of McBryde’s latest album, and she lobbied for it as the lead single, though Warner Music Nashville opted for “Light On In The Kitchen” instead. She fought again to make “The Devil” the follow-up, and she ultimately won. The label released it to radio via PlayMPE on Feb. 26, though she had to compromise. A major broadcast chain complained that it used the word “ass” too many times – she pressed for an acceptable number, she says, but didn’t get one. Ultimately, she and Joyce came up with three “clean” alternatives, and agreed on changing “get my ass to church” to “get on back to church.”
It’s not clear if it will make a difference, but McBryde says that her radio successes thus far have made many fans think she does “finger-picky ballads,” so they’re surprised at the heat she brings in concert. Thus, “The Devil I Know” should help the uninitiated begin to see her as the artist the industry knows.
“We had to put a single out that is palatable, that is very country, that is very representative of what our live show is like,” she says. “I’m so glad of every tooth and nail I lost having to fight for it. I think I think we made the right decision.”
In 2021, California native Chayce Beckham joined the lineage of artists whose talent captured viewers’ ears and hearts during his winning run on American Idol. But the narrow passageway from talent competition to bonafide star is littered with artists who never successfully made that transition.
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Beckham is not among them — thanks to “23,” his newly minted, first Billboard Country AirplayNo. 1 hit, which reached the chart pinnacle this past week (on the chart dated April 6). In the process, he joins an elite class of Idol winners to earn a Country Airplay No. 1, including Carrie Underwood, Scotty McCreery and Kelly Clarkson. Moreover, “23” was solo-written by Beckham; the song has become only the sixth song crafted a solo writer to hit No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart in the past decade — and in the process, stakes his claim as not only a song interpreter, but an artist intent on telling his story in his own way.
“I’ve been working this song for a long time and it’s had a new life at radio,” he tells Billboard of “23.” “Just watching it open up to a whole new audience over the past year has been special.”
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On Friday (April 5), he will build on his success with the release of his debut album, Bad for Me, via 19 Recordings/Wheelhouse Records/BMG.
“Over the last few years, I feel like just kind of put my head down and just kept trucking and put as much hard work into this as I could,” Beckham told Billboard. “I just wanted to create a record that I felt highlighted all the things I love in country music, like fiddles, guitars, mandolins, harmonies and storytelling.”
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He co-wrote nine of the album’s 13 songs, with three of those nine compositions being solo writes. Many of the songs on the project, including the title track, as well as “Devil I’ve Been” and “Addicted and Clean” offer unflinching honesty, drawing from his own struggles just weeks prior to his American Idol audition. Those hardships included his grandfather’s death, his girlfriend ending the relationship, and the bustup of a former band during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Beckham coped through heavy alcohol use, which led to a DUI and a near-fatal car accident in 2020.
During his recovery, his mother encouraged him to try out for American Idol. A song on his new album, “Mama,” which he wrote back in 2021 and performed on Idol, is a musical mea culpa and apology that faces his story directly on lines such as “All the pain you’ve felt, I hope you never have to feel it again/ And the night that you picked me up from jail and I swore I’d never do it again.”
“Songs like ‘Mama’ and “Drink You Off My Mind,” those were all written around the same time and come from a personal place,” Beckham said. “Writing is always therapeutic, and when you’re done writing a good song, or one you like, it feels so good to get it off your chest. This album is so special to me because I feel like it has that emotional connection with me, regardless if a song is a hit record or not.”
That Idol audition proved life-changing. Now, Beckham is signed to KP Entertainment, the same management company that guides the career of American Idol judge and country hitmaker Luke Bryan; Beckham, who is repped by UTA for booking, is currently headlining his own slate of shows and will join Luke Bryan’s Mind of a Country Boy Tour this summer.
Beckham, Billboard’s April Rookie of the Month, discusses his new album below, as well as his experiences being a co-writer and the rock band that inspires him.
Several songs on this album, including “Devil I’ve Been” and “Addicted and Clean” touch on trying to move on from past decisions that had poor consequences. Why was it important to include that here?
I had a lot of things I wanted to say, and I think I had a hard time trying to find the words to say that just in conversation, but I was able to communicate a lot of my feelings through these songs and through music. Once my life goes in a different direction — maybe becoming a dad or a husband and stuff like that, I might start singing about that stuff, too. But I think that just right now I’m still very much so in the phase of remembering the last 10 years and writing songs about it.
Throughout the album, you have several writers whose names appear several times, such as Andy Albert, John Pierce and Lindsay Rimes. What was it like finding a group of writers who are helping you tell your stories?
There are people who, whenever I moved to town, really took the time to get to know me and understand the kind of music I wanted to make. We were able to keep coming back into writing rooms and finding successful songs. Those were the guys who wrote most of this record with me, and I couldn’t have done it without them. But also, when I first got to Nashville, I figured I’d just write everything and had never thought of cutting other people’s songs. But once I got involved in the songwriting community, it was something I wanted to support and be part of.
“Waylon in ‘75” is one of only four tracks on the album you didn’t write. What stood out about it?
Yeah, that’s a song that as soon as I heard it, it definitely, it made me turn my head. The first line just pulled me in and the title, before I even heard the song. I got lucky with it and I jumped on that one pretty quick. We went in the studio and tried our best to do our thing on it, and I love the way that that one came out. I think it sets the tone really well.
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What are some of your favorite Waylon songs?
“Lonesome, On’ry and Mean” is a good one, but also “Good Hearted Woman” with Willie [Nelson] … I’ve always been hugely inspired by the outlaw scene. And even before that, Johnny Cash, before the Outlaw music, was one of my biggest inspirations. So just paying homage to those guys who really drew me into country music when I was a young kid.
Producer Bart Butler produced nearly every song on the album. What made you want to work with him on this project?
He’s done a lot of stuff that I admire, and I think that was a great starting point — a lot of the Jon Pardi stuff. We were on the same page from the get-go — we knew the direction we were trying to go with the record.
Who are some artists you would you like to collaborate with?
There are so many people that are just killing it. I’ve always wanted to work with Lainey Wilson or Chris Stapleton. I’m also a fan of guys like Zach Top who are coming up right now. I’ve talked with my buddy Elvie Shane about doing something, and Drake Milligan. There are a lot of people going down this really country route who are making great music.
What has it been like performing some of the newer songs with your band and introducing them to your audience?
Our last three, four shows, we’ve been playing a completely new set. We play most of the record, and it’s been cool just seeing the crowd reactions.
What are some of your favorite records that have inspired you?
One of my favorite groups ever is The Doors, and their [1967] self-titled album is phenomenal. When you listen to it, there is a point where you can tell they were in the studio all day trying to make the album and they got to a point where it was like, ‘That’s the best it’s going to get. Let’s move on to the next song.’ Because you can hear there’s a little whiff, there’s a little slip in a guitar solo, or Jim [Morrison], his voice might’ve cracked, or the drums were slightly off or something, but they just left it there.
There was something about those songs that made me fall in love with those records, because it felt human. These incredible musicians that I look up to, even those guys are subject to making mistakes. I feel like that inspired me to make the music I make, music that feels honest and isn’t so picture perfect.
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up column, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip. This week: With the Cowboy Carter rodeo officially underway, artists new and old take their turn in the Beyoncé-shined spotlight, while a couple old West Coast hip-hop songs lifted for the current biggest song in the country also see big gains.
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Beyoncé’s ‘Jolene’ Boosts Dolly P’s Classic Version on Streaming
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Beyoncé’s “Jolene,” a centerpiece of her new album Cowboy Carter, not only re-creates Dolly Parton’s classic 1973 single, but actively includes Parton in that revival by having the country icon introduce Bey’s new take on the song. The new “Jolene” is off to a hot start at streaming, and could make a splashy Hot 100 debut next week — but Parton’s “Jolene” is also experiencing an uptick, as both unfamiliar fans and longtime listeners have searched it out on streaming services to make an A-to-Bey comparison.
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Last weekend (Mar. 29-31), Parton’s version of “Jolene” earned 1.24 million official on-demand U.S. streams — a 43% gain from the previous weekend (871,000 streams from Mar. 22-24), according to Luminate. Of course, “Jolene” wasn’t the only timeless track that Beyoncé hoisted back up on Cowboy Carter: “Blackbird,” the Beatles’ White Album classic that Bey covers in the second slot of the album as “Blackbiird,” also experienced a 13% weekend-to-weekend gain, up to 710,000 streams this past weekend. And “Oh Louisiana,” which lifts Chuck Berry’s song of the same name for 52 seconds, helped Berry’s 1971 original more than double its streams from to weekend to weekend, up 138% to 12,000 streams.
Meanwhile, some of the older tracks that Beyoncé either sampled or interpolated on Cowboy Carter also had fans searching for source material on streaming services. “Ya Ya” contains elements of Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” and Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’,” which were up 13% and 14% compared to the previous weekend’s respective streaming totals. And “Maybelline,” another Berry track that gets a nod in “Smoke Hour / Willie Nelson,” also earned a nice bump, up 11% to 38,000 streams last weekend. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
‘Cowboy Carter’ Collaborators See Their Catalogs Skyrocket
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Whether you’re a legacy artist or a relatively unknown performer, popping up on a Beyoncé album track list is a good way to earn a healthy boost in streaming activity. Case in point: the mix of country pioneers and promising newcomers featured on Bey’s Cowboy Carter are already enjoying streaming bumps in the first few days following the album’s release — none bigger than that of Linda Martell, the pioneering singer-songwriter whose voice is featured in a spoken-word section of “Spaghetti.” Martell’s catalog registered a little under 5,000 streams during the weekend of Mar. 22-24, according to Luminate — but following the Cowboy Carter release, that number ballooned to 61,000 streams from Mar. 29-31, for a whopping 1,100% increase.
Meanwhile, Brittney Spencer, Reyna Roberts, Tanner Adell and Tiera Kennedy all benefited from appearing on Beyoncé’s version of “Blackbird,” with their catalogs up 41%, 59%, 58% and 56% in streams from weekend to weekend, respectively. And while Shaboozey’s catalog jumped 16% thanks to his pair of featured turns on the album, Willie Jones, the former X Factor contestant who duets with Bey on “Just for Fun,” saw even greater catalog gains, leaping 31% in streams in the weekend following the Cowboy Carter release. – JL
An “Everlasting” Love for “Like That” West Coast Sample Sources
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In case you’ve been living under a rock with very spotty internet access, Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar set the hip-hop world ablaze two Fridays ago with the release of their incendiary “Like That,” breakout hit from Future and Metro’s Billboard 200-topping We Don’t Trust You set. While the song largely made waves for Lamar’s pot-stirring verse seemingly calling out fellow rap superstars J. Cole and Drake, it also racked up a 2024-best first-week stream total largely by being an undeniable banger — as evidenced by the fact that listeners have even been flocking to two of the older songs that provide its secondhand musical backbone.
“Everlasting Bass,” the enduring 1986 West Coast rap anthem from Rodney-O & Joe Cooley that gives “Like That” its bleating synth hook and groaning beat backdrop, was up 230% in official on-demand U.S. streams for the tracking week ending March 28, according to Luminate, soaring to 119,000 streams from 36,000 the week before. And Eazy-E’s “Eazy-Duz-It,” another Cali classic whose sing-song “He once was a thug from around the way” intro graced hits from Three 6 Mafia and Ye before also upping the musical ante for “Like That,” was up 41% over that same period, from 247,000 to 349,000. Neither Drake nor Cole have yet responded to Lamar’s missive, but if either decides to, these returns show that maybe sampling something off The Chronic or Doggystyle might be a good place to start. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER
From Vice President Kamala Harris to Michelle Obama, everyone has something to say about Cowboy Carter. Since its March 29 release, Beyoncé’s eighth solo studio album has dominated conversations around the world – with its masterful mélange of genres as disparate as Americana and Brazilian funk and its sly connections to its Billboard 200-topping predecessor, 2022’s Renaissance.
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Cowboy Carter arrives amid a mainstream country boom, with acts like Morgan Wallen, Lainey Wilson and Luke Combs scoring some of the genre’s biggest crossover hits in over a decade. While country legends like Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton appear on the album, Beyoncé also ropes in some of the genre’s ascendant contemporary stars, including Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Reyna Roberts, Tiera Kennedy, Willie Jones and Shaboozey. Her decision to predicate the album on the genre’s oft-disregarded Black roots and her own family legacy has provided an intriguing juxtaposition to an era of mainstream country music that’s as rap-influenced as some of Beyoncé’s own pre-Cowboy Carter hits.
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The current lay of the land for country music is one of the most fascinating in mainstream music – particularly for Ken Burns, who directed 2019’s Country Music, an eight-part documentary series chronicling the history and evolution of country in American culture. In the documentary, which spawned a Billboard chart-topping soundtrack titled Country Music: A Film by Ken Burns, there is an extensive exploration of the African roots of the banjo and how pivotal the instrument was, in addition to Black and Mexican musicians, in cultivating the genre. Country Music also features contributions from Grammy-winning musician and scholar Rhiannon Giddens, who plays the banjo on Cowboy Carter’s historic Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single “Texas Hold ‘Em.” In celebration of Cowboy Carter, Burns also curated a “Black Icons of Country Music” video playlist on his digital platform, UNUM.
In a lively conversation, with Billboard, Emmy-winning documentarian Ken Burns discusses Cowboy Carter, how the new record recalls the Beatles’ White Album, Beyoncé’s covers of “Blackbird” and “Jolene,” and the important role Queen Bey plays in the archival of Black music.
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When did you first hear that Beyoncé was “going country?” What came to mind for you?
I don’t remember when I heard it, but it’s now ubiquitous. You can’t unhear it. We have silos out of commerce and convenience. Commerce wants to have a separate R&B from a separate rock’n’roll from a separate gospel from a separate classical from a separate jazz from a separate country from a separate Americana, etc.
I suppose [these are] easy descriptions for those of us [who] write about it, but they don’t exist. People listen to everything, and that’s what’s great. All of the original major country stars had a Black mentor of some kind. Take The Carter Family: A.P. Carter would travel around with the song collector, a Black man named Leslie Riddle. Jimmie Rogers — who, with The Carter Family, is the Saturday night and Sunday morning of country music’s genesis — learned everything from the Black railroad gangs that he worked with in Mississippi as a kid. Hank Williams, who is called the “Hillbilly Shakespeare,” learned everything he knew about music, he said, from a man named Rufus “Tee Tot” Payne.
Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass music, had Arnold Schultz as his mentor, another black man. Johnny Cash could barely play two chords on the guitar before he met Gus Cannon on a stoop in Memphis in the early 50s, he had been a blues singer since the ’20s. It’s always been there. These silos are actually nonexistent.
You’re hitting on a thread that Beyoncé alluded to in her Instagram message detailing some of the inspiration behind Cowboy Carter. One significant event along the five-year journey to the new album was her 2016 CMAs performance with The Chicks. Were you aware of the controversy around that?
Very, but the thing is: Who cares? This is what we focus on. We focus on the crucifixion, and we forget about the teaching. You have the Dixie Chicks – which automatically means it’s going to be controversial – and you have a Black woman, is that going to bring out a cr-cker who’s going to say something stupid? Of course it is! We’re in a polarized America. But at what point do we stop writing about the fact that people divide up completely superficially along lines of race and gender and politics? The important thing is she played, it’s a really good song, she played it really well and her new album is filled with great wonders. And let us also remember that the number one country single of all time is by a Black gay rapper.
I’ve centered race and the story of race in a lot of my films, and it bothered a lot of people — in the same way your question is talking about people who were bothered by her presence [at the CMAs]. They’re just repeating knucklehead ideas that have been around as long as people have been around — that you can other somebody and justify this separation. The other side of it is understanding the universal appeal of the country music, which is three chords and the truth, these little stories that are respective of who we are as human beings.
Art is way ahead of us as journalists and as people and culture who can’t get our act together. Artists are always reminding us that these barriers are nonexistent. You do not need a passport as a Black person or any kind of person to come into country music and find a home.
In your 2019 documentary, you spoke extensively about the African history of the banjo and the pivotal role that Black and Mexican musicians played in crafting what we now understand to be country music. On her album, Beyoncé loops in Black country pioneer Linda Martell and newcomers like Tanner Adell. Why do you think it was important for her to bring these artists along with her on this specific journey?
She knows that [with] just her mere presence. she’s making a huge statement. She knows that she’s not the first person here, and she’s trying to remind us that all of us stand on the shoulders of giants. Those shoulders were both black and white shoulders. There’s an incredible irony to me, that somehow white country is so mainstream that it feels compelled to say to a Black woman, “You can’t come in this door.” She’s in. She’s in anywhere. It doesn’t matter. Lil Nas X is in. Rhiannon Giddens is in. Linda Martell is in, her album in 1970 was fantastic. I remember I worked in a record store in 1970 and we sold it!
Have you listened to Cowboy Carter yet?
Yeah, I love it. “Texas Hold ’Em” is so fabulous. It’s really great and very bossy. And she’s not even conforming to the tiniest role that women often assume in country. She’s recognizing its pioneers, that’s why she’s lauding Dolly [Parton], who is, far and away, one of the greatest composers of all time in any genre. [Dolly] was accused of leaving country music, and she said, “I’m not leaving country music, I’m taking it with me.” When Grace Slick and other female rock ‘n’ rollers in ‘60s were hypersexualized, Loretta Lynn was writing “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’” and “The Pill,” [songs] you could say are proto-feminist. She’d never say “I’m a feminist,” but it was proto-feminist long before anybody like Joan Baez was saying stuff like this.
We’ve just got to understand, particularly in “Texas Hold ‘Em,” [Beyoncé] just walks in the door. It’s like a saloon in a Western. She uses the word “b–ch,” she’s unafraid to [reject] the assumption that a woman will be a certain way. That has never been her way, and we’re lucky for it because she becomes a pioneer.
Rhiannon Giddens, who lent her knowledge to Country Music, plays the banjo on “Texas Hold ‘Em.” What do you think is the importance of her specific presence on the track?
First of all, she’s one of the greatest human beings I’ve ever met. She has combined exquisite musicianship and an understanding that there are no borders with this incredible interest in history. In fact, I’m working on a history of the American Revolution, and there’s Rhiannon Giddens doing a percussive, vocal, unbelievable version of — you wouldn’t recognize it unless I’m telling you — “Amazing Grace.” I’m nowhere near as smart as Beyoncé, and if I know to go to Rhiannon, then she already knew!
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Outside of “Texas,” were there any other moments on the album jumped out at you in terms of what they could have been referencing ?
I felt like it was kind of like a Sgt. Pepper’s [Lonely Hearts Club Band.] It was sort of experimental in parts. There’s small takes. there’s long takes. It’s just a laboratory. I guess Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, to my mind, rule the world, and I’m perfectly okay with it! [Laughs]. [Cowboy Carter feels] like you were just asked to grow up a little bit. Put on some big boy pants and come along where [she’s] at.
From The Beatles to Brazilian funk, Beyoncé is pulling from a ridiculous range of influences on this album. It’s almost like an epic in itself.
Isn’t she saying that there are no borders? All of this stuff is her gam! So, maybe you don’t say Sgt. Peppers, you say the White Album, in which you have the greatest heavy metal song. In a couple of places, you have the most beautiful love ballad. There’s some great country pieces in several places. Is there great experimental stuff? Yes. Is there a Beach Boys song? Yes. Is there a Bob Dylan song? Yes. Is there a folk song? Yes. And she’s just one person! It took four [people] to make that album, plus George Martin. You’ve got “Helter Skelter,” “Birthday,” one of the greatest songs of all time in “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and it’s non Lennon-McCartney, you’ve got “Blackbird”! It’s still revelatory to me when I listen to it. So, Beyoncé said, “I’m going into country, but, by the way, I’m bringing every other musical form with me.”
Obviously, Beyoncé covers both “Blackbird” and Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” on Cowboy Carter. How did those reimaginings land for you?
“Blackbird” has gravitated into McCartney saying, in recent years, that it’s about Black women in the struggle for civil rights. Whether that’s true or not — maybe that’s one of the meanings of it — doesn’t really matter. I trust Sir Paul, but Lady Beyoncé, or Queen, I should say, has given us this as a way of saying, “What are you all actually talking about whenever you say ‘no’?” That’s all we do in our dialectic, is say ‘no.’ And she’s a resounding yes.
“Jolene” is wonderful. It’s such a great, great vibe. We have this music given to us by the gods that’s coursing through us, and each generation has to rediscover and reexamine what we’re saying and how we’re saying it. She’s got guts. It’s not just this album, it’s just the last three or four — you just go, “Whoa, where did she come from? How lucky are we?” And when you stop and think about how defining Black music has been for all of American culture over the generations, the fact that there’s still [such ignorant white people] left in this country just makes you go, “I really feel sorry for them.” [Laughs.]
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In terms of categorizing the album, whether that’s via Billboard’s own charts or by separate awards institutions, do you consider this a country album? What do you anticipate those conversations looking like in the coming months and what do you think the impact would be should she get slotted into “pop” or “urban contemporary” instead of “country?”
She’s not gonna be barred from country. She can be picked off the white male, drum kit, electrified, programmed radio stuff, I suppose. I don’t know what it will become. I think she’s a force in music and I don’t think we have to make too much about it. Look at Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton, [who both appear on Cowboy Carter]. They bridge gaps between people. They have kept factions within country and pop music together, talking to each other for generations. He, she, and now Beyoncé and others are reminders of our possibilities of being together — of not othering people.
Outside of “Texas Hold ‘Em,” what are your three favorite tracks from the album?
I can’t hide behind “Texas?” [Laughs.] “Texas” is one of them! Two of them would be cover covers and that would be “Blackbird” and “Jolene.” I don’t think there’s a better song on Earth than “Jolene” and Beyoncé knows that. And I think, “Smoke Hour,” it’s just a small little thing, a riff. It’s like when you’d hear these alternative takes of stuff on Beatles anthologies and you realize they had to go through there to arrive at what they did.
How do you think we can best structure conversations around this album so that we’re not bottlenecking the larger conversation around Black country music and its contemporary artists?
If you focus on the crucifixion and not on the teaching, you’ve missed it. So, if we’re always saying, “Oh, 2016 Dixie Chicks controversy, Black Woman, people protest, whatever,” we’ve missed the opportunity to just say, “Well, this is a whole bunch of really great new songs?” I’m now required by the nature of our conversation to say, “by a woman who happens to be Black.” Which means bupkis, right? And of course, in America, it means everything. We’re never going to get away from it, but that’s what we want to do. And when you have artists like Beyoncé, she’s just saying, “Don’t buy the con. Don’t invest in this. Invest in something else.” She’s trying to stretch herself and she’s an artist who makes music and is inviting us along.
In terms of this album’s dedication to archiving the expanse of America music — and highlighting the Black foundation of virtually all of that music — what would you liken that to in popular media?
There’s a big project at the Smithsonian in the ‘30s that collected the sounds of America. They recorded slaves that were still alive, people who remembered slavery, old men and women, folk tunes and things like that. It was part of the New Deal’s attempt to rebuild the country. We took stock of ourselves, and I feel [Beyoncé’s] appeal to archive is remembering that as much as all of this stuff is brand new, it owes its existence to what came before.
Kenny Chesney banks his 22nd top 10 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart as Born opens at No. 5 on the survey dated April 6.
In the week ending March 28, the set, released March 22, earned 27,000 equivalent album units in the U.S., according to Luminate. With 18,000 sold, the LP also starts at No. 1 on Billboard’s all-genre Top Albums Sales chart, where it’s Chesney’s 12th leader.
On the all-genre Billboard 200, Born enters at No. 20, marking the Tennessee native’s 18th top 20 title.
Chesney co-produced the 15-song album with longtime collaborator Buddy Cannon.
Born follows Chesney’s Here and Now, which arrived as his 17th No. 1 on Top Country Albums in May 2020. He’s tied with Garth Brooks for the third-most leaders on the 1964-launched tally. George Strait has notched a record 27 No. 1s, followed by Willie Nelson with 18.
Meanwhile, Born lead single “Take Her Home” bounds 32-19 for a new high on the streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Country Songs chart, up 99% to 2.6 million official U.S. streams. On Country Airplay, it lifts 13-12 (16.8 million in audience, up 8%).
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Chayce Beckham’s debut Hot Country Songs entry, “23,” hops 12-8 with 6.4 million streams (up 2%). The 2021 American Idol winner also scores his first Country Airplay leader with the song (6-1; 28.2 million, up 22%). It’s the latter list’s first No. 1 solely written by the act that recorded it since Taylor Swift’s “Ours” in 2012.
Plus, Parker McCollum earns his fourth Hot Country Songs top 10 as “Burn It Down” climbs 11-10. The track, which the singer-songwriter from Conroe, Texas, co-authored, drew 6.3 million streams and sold 1,000. On Country Airplay, it bumps 7-6 for a new best (23.5 million, up 2%).
Many of Nashville’s top songwriters and music publishers were feted Monday evening (April 1) during the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP)’s Nashville Country Awards, held at the Ryman Auditorium. The Spotify-sponsored event, which was hosted by Storme Warren, drew a throng of songwriters and industry execs from Nashville’s independent country songwriter and publisher community.
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Jordan Davis, who is independently published by Anthem Entertainment, was named artist-writer of the year, while his song “Next Thing You Know,” which he co-wrote with Josh Osborne, Chase McGill and Greylan James, was named song of the year; the song was independently published by Anthem Entertainment.
“This is amazing,” Davis told the crowd in taking the stage to accept his artist-writer of the year honor, adding, “I moved [to Nashville] in 2012 and dreamed of getting in the room to write songs with some of the people that are sitting right here in these front rows and never in a million years would have dreamed that I would have found the community and the family that I have here in Nashville. I’m blessed to get to say I do this for a living.”
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Big Loud Publishing took home publisher of the year honors, while Morgan Wallen, who is independently published by Big Loud Publishing, was named songwriter of the year. Wallen’s “98 Braves,” written by Travis Wood, John Byron and Josh Miller was named publisher pick of the year; the song was independently published by Creative Nation Music, Big Loud Publishing, and Concord Music Publishing.
Wallen’s “Last Night,” written by Wallen, John Byron, Ashley Gorley, Charlie Handsome and JKash, was named AIMP most streamed country song of the year; the song was independently published by Big Loud Publishing and Prescription Songs.
The rising songwriter of the year award went to Rocky Block (who is independently published by Big Loud Publishing), who has co-written songs including Cody Johnson’s “Whiskey Bent,” and Wallen’s “Man Made a Bar” and “Cowgirls.”
“I’ve been to so many of these and dreamt of this,” Block said. “I’ve been independently published my whole career,” Block said, thanking Bob DiPiero for being an early champion and also thanking Big Loud. “I’m thankful to work with everyone of you in this room.”
Meanwhile, Mae Estes, who is independently published by Plaid Flag Music and Kobalt Music Publishing, was named rising artist-writer of the year. Estes is known for songs including “Hell You Raised” and “Roses.”
“I worked three jobs at a time in this town for almost six years and finally got a publishing deal to write songs in Music City and y’all changed my whole life,” Estes told the audience shortly before hit yet another milestone that same evening, performing for the first time on the Ryman Auditorium stage.
“The awards are always a magical night with Artist nominees performing Song of the Year-nominated songs,” says Ree Guyer, owner of Wrensong Entertainment, in a statement. “It is always fun seeing our indie publishers come together to celebrate one another in a laid-back, intimate setting.”
As is tradition for the AIMP Nashville Awards, past and present rising artist-writer of the year and artist-writer of the year nominees were on hand to perform. Each song of the year and publisher picks category nominated songs were performed by someone other than the original artist or writer. This year’s performers included Davis, Dylan Scott, Russell Dickerson, Estes, George Birge, Dylan Marlowe and HARDY.
Big Machine Music’s vice president of publishing Tim Hunze was named the 2024 AIMP song champion award honoree, recognizing his contributions to the independent publishing and songwriting community. Hunze offered up advice he received from songwriter Tom Shapiro, saying, “‘If you take care of the creatives and the writers, you’ll always have a job.’ That is the best part of what I get to do, working with the creatives.” He also nodded to earning the song champion award, saying, “Being a song champion is just being passionate and finding something you love. I’ve been doing the same thing since I was a kid; I found a band I liked and I told all my friends and all my buddies.”
The friendship between Beyoncé and Jack White is still going strong. Following the release of her Cowboy Carter album on Friday (March 29), Bey sent a bouquet of flowers to rocker Jack White. The White Stripes songwriter took to Instagram to share the sweet gift, which featured a note that reads, “Jack, I hope you […]
The Red Clay Strays, the quintet behind the recent viral hit “Wondering Why,” are set to launch their inaugural European tour in August.
The group, who just inked a major label deal with RCA Records and are signed with WME for booking, will play five shows, beginning Aug. 18 in Dublin, Ireland, and followed by shows in Glasgow, UK (Aug. 20), Manchester, UK (Aug. 21), London (Aug. 23) and wrapping the trek with a show at The Long Road Festival in Leicestershire, UK, on Aug 24.
The group, hailing from Mobile, Alabama, first released “Wondering Why” in 2022, though the song began surging in late 2023 thanks to social media. The group — which includes lead singer Brandon Coleman, electric guitarist Zach Rishel, guitarist/vocalist Drew Nix, bassist Andrew Bishop and drummer John Hall — has been making music since 2016, blending elements of rockabilly, gospel, soul, blues, rock and country into a sonic mesh Coleman refers to as “non-denominational rock ‘n’ roll.” Coleman, Nix and songwriter Dan Couch wrote “Wondering Why.”
The band is working on a Dave Cobb-produced album. “Since we’ve started, the goal from day one was to work with Dave Cobb,” Coleman previously told Billboard. “The fact that it actually happened is surreal.”
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The Red Clay Strays released their debut album Moment of Truth in 2022, and have since opened shows for artists including Eric Church and Dierks Bentley. In September 2023, they also launched their headlining Way Too Long Tour, and are set to appear on a slate of music festivals this summer, including Moon Crush and Cattle Country Fest.
Tickets for the slate of European shows go on sale April 5 at 10 a.m. local time. Fans can also sign up for a passcode for an artist presale on April 3 beginning at 10 a.m. local time.
Michelle Obama is loving Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album. The former First Lady of the United States took to Instagram on Tuesday (April 2) to share a photo of the recently released album’s cover art, alongside a plea for fans to register to vote for the upcoming presidential election this year. “@Beyonce, you are a record-breaker […]