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Charley Pride, the first Black artist to have a number one country record, achieved
immense success in the genre during the 1960s and 1970s, despite facing prejudice
and racial discrimination.
Photograph by Bettmann, Getty Images
HISTORY & CULTURE
Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour reminds us that Black artists are at the roots of
country music
Artists like Beyonce and Lil Nas X are drawing mainstream attention to a tradition
that is alive and well—thanks to the contributions and innovations of generations
of Black musicians.
BySanti Elijah Holley
May 1, 2025
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.
Rhiannon Giddens, a performing historian whose work highlights Black people's
pivotal role in...Read More
Photograph by Karen Cox, The New York Times/Redux
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.
(A mecca for rap has emerged in the birthplace of jazz and blues.)
“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.
(Discover the history of Tennessee’s forgotten music empire.)
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.
(Here’s how the Harlem Renaissance helped forge a new sense of Black identity.)
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.”
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