As Atlanta prepared for Beyoncé to bring her “Cowboy Carter” tour to town, a slew of denim and leather-studded events — drag brunches and pop-up parties — were in motion to celebrate her arrival. When the singer began her four-night run at Mercedes-Benz Stadium Thursday night, she returned the love — debuting a gilded horse that floated her onto the stage as she sang the country ballad, “16 Carriages.”
The tour, in support of Beyoncé’s, eighth album, a staggering, 27-track opus, features the Houston native in full Americana — white leather with blue and red accents and an American flag waving from her manicured grasp.
Her fans instantly understood the assignment.
The extended Beyhive that has swarmed her “Cowboy Carter” shows has dutifully shown up in their best Western digs layered with patriotic symbols. Beginning Thursday, the Atlanta audience was equally well-heeled, in cowboy boots, cowhide prints, patriotic hues and bandanas, with Dirty South accents like gold teeth and layered chains.
The “Cowboy Carter” tour and its pointed reclamation of America’s patriotic symbols have taken on special significance at every stop — from a two-night turn in Beyonce’s Houston hometown to a July 4th show set against the backdrop of a divided nation’s capital. In Atlanta, “Cowboy Carter” tips its hat to the city’s legacy as a Black mecca, the spiritual center of the Civil Rights Movement, and a place of pride and community for LGBTQ+ identity.
Stylish attendees in Atlanta elevated the call for red, white and blue all over, complete with pageant sashes and structured cowgirl hats reminiscent of those Beyonce has worn on stage and while promoting “Cowboy Carter.”
The subtitle of the “Cowboy Carter” tour is the “Rodeo Chitlin’ Circuit Tour,” highlighting the network of venues in which Black entertainers were relegated to perform at the height of Jim Crow-era segregation.
“Cowboy Carter” evokes that same sentiment of safe spaces amid exclusion, said Jessica Wise, whose online magazine and events firm, Audacity, is co-hosting a line-dance social Friday night — one of the many themed fetes scheduled this weekend.
Wise and her friend Kayla Stubbs, director of Austell’s Dancer’s Dreamhouse, threw a similar event last year a few months after Beyoncé released “Cowboy Carter.” It was quite intentionally held the week of Juneteenth, Wise said, making the rodeo theme all the more poignant.
“Black people have always been part of the fabric of America, that Black people have always been patriots even when America was not America to us — is a huge part of what this tour represents.”
For Wise, who comes from “a long line of veterans,” the patriotism throughout “Cowboy Carter” resonates deeply. “The very first person to die in the name of America was a Black man,” she said, referring to the American Revolutionary war hero Crispus Attucks. “Reminding people that Black people have always been part of the fabric of America, that Black people have always been patriots even when America was not America to us — is a huge part of what this tour represents.”
As “Cowboy Carter” migrated east from its inaugural show in Inglewood, California, fans have taken to social media to offer the uninitiated a glimpse at life inside Bey’s rodeo. One widely shared image shows the moment the audience gets some advice projected from one of the stadium screens from Mrs. Carter: Never Ask Permission For Something That Already Belongs To You.
Read More: Beyonce. Boots. Brunches. 7 ‘Cowboy Carter’ Events in Atlanta
“Cowboy Carter” was spurred by a moment in which, as Beyoncé wrote on Instagram following the album’s release, she “did not feel welcomed.” The post alluded to the singer’s 2016 appearance at the Country Music Awards, where Beyoncé’s performance of “Daddy Lessons” — a twangy hit from “Lemonade,” the showstopping album she released that year — drew racist backlash.
The moment fueled discourse about the pioneering role Black Americans — including Charley Pride, Linda Martell and a growing list of contemporary artists — have had in country music. It drove Beyoncé to do “a deeper dive into the history” of the genre, she wrote, and to study “our rich musical archive.”
The project, five years in the making, offers nods to the American songbook and those who have been left out of it. “Cowboy Carter” has also brought awareness to Black rodeo culture and its rich but overlooked legacy in American history.
Her efforts echo the decades-long mission of the Bill Pickett Rodeo, named for the pioneering Black cowboy and rodeo performer of the early 20th century. For Valeria Howard-Cunningham, who took over the traveling Black rodeo founded by her late husband, Lu Vason, the “Cowboy Carter” era has been exhilarating.
“I was extremely excited because it was somebody else putting a spotlight on the West,” Howard-Cunningham said, adding that Beyoncé’s work on “Cowboy Carter” has “elevated the Western culture that exists in the Black community and elevated the story that we’ve been telling for 41 years.”
The patriotism that Beyoncé has infused into “Cowboy Carter” is “absolutely” part of Black rodeo culture, Howard-Cunningham said. “We are all Americans, but we choose to tell our story the way it needs to be told and we don’t allow somebody else to tell that story.”
Bill Pickett Rodeo invitationals have long been popular across the nine cities they visit annually — including Atlanta. But on the spurred heels of “Cowboy Carter,” the rodeo shows have drawn new faces.
“I run into people all the time saying, ‘Oh, I’m pulling out my boots and my jeans and we’re going to see Beyoncé, and then we’ll see you next week at the rodeo,’” Howard-Cunningham said.
Bianca Lambert, a journalist and filmmaker who grew up in Atlanta, first took in the “Cowboy Carter” tour last month in London. But seeing it in her hometown last night hit different.
“Seeing it in London was great. You’re with a different group of people, people who have different perspectives from you,” she said. “But seeing it in the South, in Atlanta in particular, brings the album home and brings what Beyonce is trying to do — and show — with ‘Cowboy Carter’ full circle.”
Thursday night, Lambert had a floor seat that gave her an unvarnished view of Beyonce and the images behind her. When Beyonce performed her rendition of “Before I Let Go,” Lambert recalled, footage of the late Frankie Beverly appeared alongside her on a split screen.
Seeing them performing such a beloved hit side by side marked a special moment. “The feeling of that in the South —in Atlanta — is just epic,” Lambert said.
“[Beyonce’s] saying, ‘Listen, Black people literally built this country. This flag is as much ours as it is yours.’”
Bianca Lambert
The screens also project the historical context that Beyonce has weaved into “Cowboy Carter.” Lambert recognized faces like that of Martell, one of her collaborators on the album, and the first Black woman to perform solo at the Grand Ole Opry. But there were others she didn’t recognize, and she snapped photos to learn their stories.
Lambert also appreciated the symbolism in Beyonce’s star-spangled wardrobe. On Atlanta’s opening night, Lambert recalled, “She looked like Wonder Woman.”
Beyonce’s prominent use of the American flag, stars, and eagle imagery — on everything from floor-length coats to ballooning bell-bottoms — is “another visible statement where she doesn’t have to come out and verbalize” her message, Lambert said. “[Beyonce’s] saying, ‘Listen, Black people literally built this country. This flag is as much ours as it is yours.’”
