“This ain’t a Country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album,” the global superstar declared earlier this month in an Instagram post about her eighth album, act ii: Cowboy Carter, which is out today (March 29).
Cowboy Carter is the second installment of Bey’s trilogy album series that launched with 2022’s act i: Renaissance.
The genre-defying album, which consists of 27 tracks, includes the Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “Texas Hold ‘Em” and the B-side, “16 Carriages.”
For Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé enlisted legendary country artists like Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, and Linda Martell, as well as emerging country singers, including Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts, Shaboozey and Willie Jones. Pop stars Miley Cyrus and Post Malone also appear on the album.
The expansive set includes writing and production by The-Dream, Pharrell Williams, Raphael Saadiq, Swizz Beatz, NO I.D., Leven Kali, DIXSON, Nova Wav and others.
“The joy of creating music is that there are no rules. The more I see the world evolving the more I felt a deeper connection to purity,” Beyoncé shared in a statement. “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.”
Though Cowboy Carter is the second installment of Beyoncé’s three-act series, she had already completed before releasing Renaissance. “This album took over five years,” Beyoncé shared. “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.”
As noted above, Cowboy Carter is the follow-up to Beyoncé’s Grammy-winning album, Renaissance. The latter project won Best Dance/Electronic Music Album at the 65th Grammy Awards in 2023. The historic win made Beyoncé the first Black woman to ever win a Grammy in that category. At the same ceremony, Bey took home trophies for Best R&B Song (“Cuff It“), Best Traditional R&B Performance (“Plastic Off the Sofa“), and Best Dance/Electronic Recording (“Break My Soul“).
Stream Beyoncé’s new album Cowboy Carter below.