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So Father Nathan Monk had this to say about Beyonce's album, "Cowboy Carter". I read his stuff all the time--social justice is his thing, with more than a dollop of expletives and openness. 😁

"The question is floating around in the air, but most are too afraid to say the quiet part out loud: Is she allowed to do this? What gave Beyoncé the right to jump genres and swerve outside of her lane to sing country music? You are trying to kidnap what we have rightfully stolen! Let me make this clear: there is no controversy about Beyoncé recording a country album. Hell, I am not even saying you’ve got to like it. You are welcome to not like any music you choose. There are plenty of songs that folks love that I hate. This isn’t about whether the album is good (which it is) but about what it means to be country and who gets to choose what defines that genre."

It's a good read--it reminded me a lot of Heather Cox Richardson's bringing history into the present, though she'd have to be in a manic episode to get anywhere close to this passionate.

"The biggest lie you were told growing up is that the Civil War was North vs South. No, it was the United States fighting the Confederacy. When we say it was brother against brother, we don’t mean just the North and the South, but quite literally households divided ideologically. A great migration began as Northerners went southward to fight for the Confederacy, while plenty of Southerners packed up their rifles to enlist in the American army. Unfortunately, it became all too convenient a narrative to over-qualify the North as some bastion of liberalism devoid of racism and that bigotry is exclusively a Southern problem. Now, I am not going to pretend that we don’t have racism here. I know damn well we’ve got racism here; I won’t pretend we don’t..."

You gotta read this review! I listen to neither Beyonce nor country music, but after reading this piece, I had to give it a go. And that woman can *sing*. It is a tremendous album, with a wonderful range of styles on it--recently I've found it hard to listen to a whole album in a sitting, I get bored after 3 songs and want another artist, more variety. Not so with this album!! Plenty of variety, and it's all good.

fathernathan.substack.com/p/a-…