Charley Crockett: ‘Hey country folks, Beyonce ain’t the source of your discontent’

In February, Beyonce won the Album of the Year and Country Album of the Year Grammys for Cowboy Carter. Country music – the corporate, sanitized, radio-approved country music industry – had already decided that they despised Cowboy Carter, but seeing Beyonce’s country album win those two Grammys sent them over the edge. There was a backlash and it was just as dumb and racist as you would expect. A couple of country “stars” have also attacked Beyonce and incurred the wrath of the Beyhive, namely Gavin Adock and Morgan Wallen. Well, another country star has thoughts about Beyonce and the grenade she set off in country music. That man is Charley Crockett. Before now, I’ve never heard his songs, but I’m listening now and he’s got a real vintage vibe? You can tell that he’s obsessed with Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. Crockett is a Texas native and mixed race. Well, Crocket went OFF on his Instagram this week:

Hey country folks. @beyonce ain’t the source of your discontent. It was 25 years of bro country. #1 country artist on earth listens to nothing but rap. Openly says he doesn’t really know any country music. Gotta respect his honesty.

The machine points to a black woman who’s making a statement about marginalized people being removed from the conversation altogether, and somehow we all act like the entire pop industry didn’t just ambush roots music. These “country boys” been *singing* over trap beats for years. So what’s different now? Authenticity.

Many of those business folks called me early on. They had whole albums pre written and recorded ready to just plug me in. I have receipts. It’s harder than ever to keep the public’s attention. They said and I quote “we wanna get into country music where you have audience loyalty.” Hot today, forgot tomorrow.

I don’t need to put down a black woman to advance my music. That’s just embarrassing to the idea of America and I got no respect for it. Somebody asked me why I listen to @bigxthaplug the other day. Easy. He’s genuine. A true story teller. The best hip hop sound to come out of Texas in this century.

The challenges country music faces aren’t unique. It’s an issue in every *genre*. I don’t have a problem with Americana. I have a problem with being compartmentalized by the music business. Outlaw as a *sub genre* of country was artists standing up for their rights against a rigid system. Ain’t no reason to imitate @officialwaylon and @willienelsonofficial if you ain’t about the fight. Texas forever.

[From Charley Crockett’s IG]

The “#1 country artist on earth listens to nothing but rap” thing is a reference to Morgan Wallen, who said that he barely listens to country music… and you can tell. Wallen has been dying to crossover into a more mainstream pop/country career. He’s also one of the country artists singing over trap beats, but Wallen isn’t alone there. Anyway, while Crockett’s points are sort of scattered and stream-of-consciousness, I get the feeling that he was sending a message to some specific people in the music industry (not just Adcock and Wallen) and not all of it was a message for the larger public.

In any case, Crockett is correct – Beyonce “ain’t the source of your discontent.” It’s actually a huge tell of country music’s self-defeating gatekeeping that they refused to embrace Beyonce and Cowboy Carter. They should have recognized that the biggest, most influential artist of the past twenty years making a country album was a huge cultural moment for their genre. They should have begged her to perform on all of their country music shows. They should have invited her to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. Instead, they all showed their asses and proved Beyonce’s larger point, that she didn’t feel welcomed in a genre which was authentically HERS.

Photos of Crockett, courtesy of his Instagram. Additional photos/screengrabs and album cover courtesy of Netflix, Backgrid and Beyonce.

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14 Responses to “Charley Crockett: ‘Hey country folks, Beyonce ain’t the source of your discontent’”

  1. Jais says:

    25 years of bro country😂. Country boys been singing over trap beats for years. Ain’t that the truth. It’s hard to think back to when there were just as many female country singers on the radio. Like that used to actually be a real thing. Tanya, Reba, Tricia, wynona. Patty, Martina, faith, Shania, Pam, Mary Chapin, just to name a few. That’s so long gone. I had no idea that Morgan Wallen barely even listens to country music. Jeez. The last few country singers I was able to somewhat get into were Eric church and Chris Stapleton. I don’t even mind the bro country so much if at least it was one part of the current country sound but it seems to be the majority of it.

    • kgeo says:

      Oddly, I was just telling my son why I hate bro country today. He’s 12, and likes red dirt country, so he doesn’t have the context for a lot of this. He asked why i didn’t like the song that was on, and I said I hate country that’s just some guy talking about a girl and a beer and a truck. And I meant ‘talking’, not singing. It’s so bad. Luckily, he agreed. Country music is political and he’s trying to figure out what a man is. At least this is one front I don’t have to fight.

  2. Skyblue says:

    Wow! I was so surprised when I opened the Celebitchy site and Charley Crockett popped up. I’ve been listening to his music for years, ever since catching him at the Newport Folk Festival in 2019. Caught him live again at a small venue in Great Falls, MT, the man delivers! I love that he called out Wallen.

    • Jais says:

      I’ll have to check him out? Does he get classified as Americana as opposed to country bc he also brought that up?

      • Lucy says:

        Yes. He’s Americana, also falls into Texas Country or folk music, depending on where you are.

  3. Lucy says:

    I’ve really enjoyed some of Charley’s music, he’s got a really interesting story. I don’t remember how he got started doing music, but I do remember that he busked some. I think he also had a story about being in New Orleans, and going to sing in places that had house bands and getting into fist fights because he didn’t know any music things- didn’t know what key, etc. The band guys were frustrated pretty quick and felt disrespected, and that’s when he learned about chords and keys 😂

    Americana is what country used to be, and it’s kind of catch all. Rhiannon Giddens is one of my favorite musicians (she plays the intro banjo hook to Texas Hold ‘Em by Beyoncé), she is an incredible musician and scholar, she was also in Carolina Chocolate Drops and made a devastating album as part of Native Daughters. Shes explicitly playing music that’s the actual roots of country and I remain thrilled she was on a Beyoncé album (and then lived in Ireland for about six months).
    Sorry to be completely random, I haven’t had my brain organizing coffee yet. Anyway. Charley is right and these bro “country” a holes can jump off a cliff, nothing of value would be lost. Especially Wallen, anyone who feels positive towards him is suspect as a person to me.

  4. salmonpuff says:

    Sam Sanders and Tressie McMillan Cottam have had a couple of super interesting conversations about this on his podcast. The white-i-fication and bro-i-fication of country music is gross on so many levels and is a really good proxy for what’s happening in politics right now.

    Off to listen to some Charley Crockett…

  5. Debdowner says:

    We are Charley Crockett fans—he does have that vintage quality to his voice and his songs are interesting, varied topics.

  6. TheBay says:

    My son who is very into Americana and blue grass introduced me to Charley Crockett. We saw his concert at the Greek theater in Berkeley in June. Fantastic show! Charley is a great live performer, excellent voice, a showman and the band was super tight. Both outlaw and R&B influence. Check out $10 Cowboy, Welcome to Hard Times, Jamestown Ferry and I Need Your Love for a taste of the vibe. He told some great stories about his ties to California so there was nice audience interaction as well.

    • SIde Eye says:

      Thank you so much for this list! I deleted Morgan Wallen a while back. love Shaboozey and recently discovered Maurice on Instagram. Charley Crockett sounds great. I love the vintage vibe to it – totally different genre of music to compare him to but reminds me a bit of Jalen Ngonda (who I also love) in terms of the feel of the music. Love the retro vibe..

  7. MsKrisTalk says:

    I always found it interesting that most country artists knew the major hip hop artists but those artists didn’t really know much about them. Beyonce’s tour did better than country darling, Carrie Underwood. The racism in that genre goes deep but I’m glad that Beyonce highlighted her fellow artists who have been ignored.

  8. Jennifer Chaos says:

    I love what this man has to say. If you watch the documentary about Ed Sullivan that just came out, you see on early shows that the audience was very mixed agewise, kids, teens, older people, etc – just folks who liked music. (there is an issue with more diversity but I digress). Beyonce is a pop singer/writer. She has many influences obviously, and uses them in way that appeals to a wide variety of people. Her music is catchy, fun and non-threatening. For people to try to crucify her for embracing a love of country, rock or who knows, reggae/reggaeton, dance hall even (gasp) goth is narrow minded. Enjoy her music if you like it. Don’t listen if you don’t. But to try to pigeonhole her is insulting. She is a strong woman with a lot of angles. Good for her. Artists don’t generally want to make the same record over and over (OK, maybe Maroon 5 lol), and artists need more freedom to explore. There was a time when radio was just about music, not formats or genres. Think about a playlist you create, there’s maybe everything from Dolly Parton to Alice Cooper, to Wet Leg, The Linda Linda’s to Chance the Rapper. Whatever makes you happy to hear. Music can be so joyful. Something we need more of. Just my 2 cents.

  9. mightymolly says:

    Country music is political, and that’s why my very city parents listened to it when I was growing up. The music back then was about the rights of working people, which transcends geography. The hard right turn of country music is an absolute betrayal of its roots.

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