Beyoncé (Bey) has gone country with two new singles, Texas Hold Em and Sixteen Carriages.  These singles are topping the country music charts and are sure to generate lots of new country music fans around the world including in Texas.  If those country music lovers in Texas – Black, White, and all hues in between who are in hiding come out, can Texas hold em?!  Can you, Texas?!

I posted an article to this blog back in February 2017 stating how I love country music, how I regularly pluck out a few country tunes on my ole guitar, and why I never attended a concert of any of my favorite country singers.  You can click on the link above if you would like to read that article.

I’m really hyped about seeing what impact Beyoncé’s new country music album, especially her two new country singles that she has already released, will have on country music overall.  I’m just as hyped about seeing how many Black country music lovers it will bring out of hiding; if there are any, because – don’t tell anybody I said this, I was in hiding for a while back in the early 1970s.

I was young then and wasn’t sure whether I wanted my buddies to know how much I liked, and regularly listened to, country music.  That was when I didn’t know better.  But since I learned better, which was a long time ago, I have tried to turn my friends and relatives on to it but I have had little success.  Some of those friends and relatives live in Texas.

I have even had less than “little success” when I have tried to get them to listen to me pluck out a few tunes on my ole (or new) guitar.  They all manage to find some polite reason not to listen or just stealthily remove themselves from the room.  To be fair, maybe those friends and relatives in Texas already liked country music and just did not want to listen to my version of it.

Either way, I can’t wait to see if there are any changes in their perspective toward country music since Bey burst onto the country scene.  My wife really likes Beyoncé but she did not need the Beyoncé nudge to listen to me play.  So, to be fair to her, she was not among those who would find a polite reason to not listen to me play or stealthily remove themselves from the room, at least most of the time she wasn’t, when I would throw down with a few of my favorite country tunes.  Just to be clear, I am sure that even if the remainder of these friends and relatives had a complete change of heart about country music because of Beyoncé, that does not mean that they would now be willing to listen to me pluck out a few tunes.

They will probably regret their polite excuses and stealthiness when I make it to the big time – like Beyoncé, and they ask for my autograph and I snub them.  But that is a different story for a different time.  However, before I leave this subject, I want to clearly state that the “they” mentioned above does not include my wife.  I don’t know why I felt the need to make that abundantly clear but I did.

Anyway, should any of these new-country-music-loving bumpkins (they are from the inner city and suburbs but it is fair to call them bumpkins) come running to me asking me to pluck out a few tunes for them once I have made it, I am going to really make them beg.  I am going to find release for all those years of them ducking out on me before I play for them.  Don’t tell them I said that, okay?  But like I said, that is a different story for a different time.

I think that Beyoncé is going to do a lot to attract new fans of all colors to the country music genre.  I will likely have to wait awhile to see how much impact it will have on the mindset of my relatives’ and friends’ attitude toward my ole (or new) guitar, me, and my plucking out tunes for them.  But when that time comes, remember what I just told you about how I am going to handle that situation.  Again – just as a polite reminder, don’t tell them I said that, okay?

I imagine that, just like in my post back in February 2017 that I provided you the link to, you are probably asking yourself; since this is a political blog, what does this article have to do with politics?  Well, it has to do with the same rationale that I gave you in that article.  You will have to read the article to get the rationale.  So, go ahead and read it; I believe that you will enjoy it and it will take your mind away from all the negative, stressful politics that Americans are currently faced with.

Eulus Dennis – author, M2: Street Cop To Top Cop, Operation Rubik’s Cube and Living Between The Line