Rhiannon Giddens Has “Complicated Feelings” about Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter”

Random Notes 41 Comments


Rhiannon Giddens has a very busy April ahead of her. On April 18th, she’ll be releasing her latest album What Did The Blackbird Say to the Crow with Justin Robinson. Fans can expect a prime selection of traditional roots music from the album, not dissimilar to what Giddens has built her career on. Then April 25th to the 27th, she will be hosting her inaugural Biscuits & Banjos music festival in Durham, NC where her old band the Carolina Chocolate Drops will reunite.

But what has a lot of people talking at the moment is Rhiannon’s comments about her participation in Beyoncé’s album Cowboy Carter that she revealed in a feature in Rolling Stone. The article characterized that Giddens has “complicated feelings” about her involvement in the project that saw Beyoncé use Rhiannon’s banjo and viola in the album’s big single “Texas Hold ‘Em.”

On the positive side, Giddens says, “Because of all the things I’ve been fighting for my whole life, it’s been difficult to be seen as a Black musician, especially since I’m mixed. But for the first time, I felt acceptance from the mainstream Black community, which made me weep.”

It might sound weird to some who’ve never been to a Rhiannon Giddens or Carolina Chocolate Drops concert, but the shows draw a mostly White audience, and it’s Black listeners that are difficult to engage with.

But it was some of the other things Rhiannon Giddens said about the Cowboy Carter experience—or maybe what she didn’t say—that has some wondering if that experience was less than ideal.

In the interview, Giddens remarks, “When I think about my banjo playing, I think of the lineage I have received through Joe Thompson and everyone who taught him … this connection to a very deep piece of my culture. Every time I pull my banjo out, I’m thinking of that.”

Giddens continues, “If ever I do something that seems counter to that, there’s a very good reason. There are two examples I could pull out, in my entire 20-year career, where I feel like I had to make a compromise in order for a greater good. This was one of those times. What was hard for me was to feel that gift treated as any other transaction in the music industry.”

Though you have to sort of parse though what Giddens is saying, she seems to be implying that her banjo part on “Texas Hold ‘Em” wasn’t used in the Joe Thompson tradition, and instead of being handled with a sense of reverence or understanding of Black banjo history, was simply utilized as just another element in the song by just another contributor.

For those who don’t know, Joe Thompson was considered one of the last true old-time Black string band musicians. He passed away in 2012.

Giddens also said, “I did it for the mission. So, my idea of what the mission is and somebody else’s idea of what the mission is are not going to be the same thing. There’s a reason why I’m not a multi-millionaire. If you are a multi-millionaire, there are reasons why. No shade, whatever. It means you do things in a certain way.”

She then continued, “I don’t do this because I want to look pretty and make a lot of money, and so when I rub up against that world, it’s always hard.”

Though none of us should be so presumptive as to put words into the mouth of Rhiannon Giddens, you can definitely tell there is some disappointment both how Giddens was utilized on Cowboy Carter, and how the overall “mission” of the album was approached.

The simple fact is that Cowboy Carter did not achieve the mission it set out to, or at least the mission that was assigned to it by so many in the press and in academia before its release. Many promised it would revolutionize country music, dramatically open country up to Black and Brown performers—especially women of color—and reclaim the banjo’s Black origins.

But here nearly a year after the release, it’s empirically true Cowboy Carter did not achieve any of these things. It’s true that country music continues to open up more for Black and Brown performers, but it’s uncertain, if not unlikely, Cowboy Carter has anything to do with that.

Despite the scores of media pieces proclaiming the album reclaimed the banjo for Black culture, the only song on the 27-track album that featured banjo was “Texas Hold ‘Em.” The discussions around the album perhaps did educate some that the Banjo’s origins are in Africa, but it doesn’t feel like it was a sea change moment around banjo misconceptions.

Perhaps Cowboy Carter could have achieved all of these missions if it had been approached differently, or the “mission” had been different as Giddens says. But when we heard the actual album, it felt much more like a pop/hip-hop/R&B hybrid with a few country inflections as opposed to an actual country project.

Beyoncé herself said point blank, “This ain’t a country album.” Every indication is Beyoncé never had any intention to release a country album. It was fans, the press, and others that impressed this upon her. In fact, calling the album country seems to insult Beyoncé’s artistic intent.



Rhiannon Giddens is not alone as a Black woman in roots music feeling like Cowboy Carter missed the mark, or at least, didn’t achieve the right mission. Guitar player Yasmin Williams also questioned the credibility, motivations, and outcomes of Cowboy Carter.

Why change the lyrics to Jolene? Why give Miley Cyrus and Post Malone longer, more involved features while the black country artists on their features get only small snippets of singing time? Why cover Blackbird and add literally nothing to it but some random background vocals?

A black country renaissance album with Post Malone and Miley Cyrus on it… and even a Levi’s plug! Whew.

If this is the album that was supposed to reclaim & spread awareness of the black roots of country music, it’s doing a poor job. This seems to be more of an attempt to capitalize on the growing popularity of pop-country than to actually educate anyone on the history of the genre.

Rhiannon Giddens seems to be saying somewhat similar things, just much more judiciously and measured.

Meanwhile, much of the media and many in the public still regard Cowboy Carter as a revolutionary album in country music and American culture, while also not acknowledging the incredible cratering in consumption the album also experienced, meaning it didn’t even really have the cultural impact some assign to it.

History has a way of eventually winning bad arguments, and there were many bad arguments that were made on behalf of Cowboy Carter. But if you were someone like Rhiannon Giddens or others that hoped Cowboy Carter could have been revolutionary, it’s difficult to not be disappointed, despite the Grammy wins for Best Country Album and all genre Album of the Year.

Cowboy Carter very well could have an incredibly revolutionary moment in country music. Instead, it was just a pop album, and according to the consumption numbers behind it, not even a particularly appealing one.

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