Photo Credit: Bill Kelly
A week in the wake of Beyoncé Cowboy Carter album release, the outpouring of adoration for the pathbreaking offering surges on. The latest high-profile expression of appreciation for the project comes from the legendary Sir Paul McCartney, whose landmark 1968 composition “Blackbird” was covered on the project. In a post to his Instagram account, the icon terms Beyoncé’s rendition “magnificent” for its renewed emphasis on “the civil rights message that inspired [him] to write the song in the first place.”
McCartney goes on to recount a gracious exchange with Beyoncé, writing, “I spoke to her on FaceTime and she thanked me for writing it and letting her do it. I told her the pleasure was all mine and I thought she had done a killer version of the song.” Queen Bey’s treatment of the standard features Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy and Reyna Roberts, assembling a dream team of acclaimed women of color in country music to deliver a stripped-down, folkified and hauntingly beautiful arrangement complete with a toe-tapping backbeat, warm, open acoustics and rapturously lush harmonies.
As the second track on Beyoncé’s album, this song amplifies the greater album’s message of reclaiming the history of people of color in country music to open a space for future artists, beyond the backlash faced by the artist and inspirations like Linda Martell alike. In tune with this noble mission, McCartney recalls, “When I saw the footage on the television in the early 60s of the Black girls being turned away from school, I found it shocking and I can’t believe that still in these days there are places where this kind of thing is happening right now. Anything my song and Beyoncé’s fabulous version can do to ease racial tension would be a great thing and makes me very proud.”
Other artists featured on Beyonce’s thoroughly reverential album, such as Martell, Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton, have also spoken the project’s impact. Read McCartney’s statement in full below.
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