Round Up the Posse: Everyone Featured on Beyoncé's New Album 'Cowboy Carter'

Beyoncé may be a singular star, but she tends to surround herself with a whole constellation of collaborators, producers, and songwriters. Her latest, the country-inspired album Cowboy Carter out today, is no different, featuring appearances from old-school country legends alongside current pop heavyweights and rising artists from across the contemporary music landscape.

Let's take a look at the supporting cast, shall we?

The 90-year-old outlaw country legend Willie Nelson pops up for two "Smoke Hour" interludes on Cowboy Carter.

"Welcome to 'The Smoke Hour' on KNTRY Radio Texas," Nelson says during his first appearance, with the flick of a lighter and an exhalation of smoke audible after the tuning of a radio dial. "You know my name, no need to know yours. Now for this next tune, I want y'all to sit back, inhale, and go to the good place your mind likes to wander off to. And if you don't wanna go, go find yourself a jukebox."

"You tuned in to KNTRY Radio Texas, home of the real deal," he adds on the "Smoke Hour II" interlude. "If there's one thing you can take away from my set today, let it be this: Sometimes you don't know what you like and then someone you trust turns you on to some real good s---. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I'm here."

Beyoncé, like Nelson, is a Texas native, and she previously paid tribute by wearing a Willie Nelson shirt on the cover of Texas Monthly's music issue in 2004.

Beyoncé covers Dolly Parton's 1973 hit "Jolene" on Cowboy Carter, and her rendition is introduced by the 78-year singer herself on the aptly named interstitial track "Dolly P."

"Hey Miss Honey B, it's Dolly P," Parton says, drawing a connection between "Jolene" and Beyoncé's "Becky with the good hair" line from Lemonade.

"You know that hussy with the good hair you sang about? Reminded me of someone I knew back when, except she has flaming locks of auburn hair, bless her heart," Parton continues. "Just a hair of a different color, but it hurts just the same."

In an interview with Knox News earlier this month, Parton enthused about the collaboration.

"I love her! She’s a beautiful girl and a great singer," she explained. "We've kind of sent messages back and forth through the years. And she and her mother were like fans, and I was always touched that they were fans, and I always thought she was great."

Parton also pops up for a cameo on "Tyrant."

Dolly Parton's goddaughter Miley Cyrus lends her signature rasp to the duet "II Most Wanted."

The two stars previously teamed up with Rihanna for a performance at a Stand Up to Cancer benefit in 2008.

"What I remember most from doing this performance is I was standing in between two of the big legends and icons that I was looking up to at the time, and they treated me like a little sister the entire time," Cyrus recalled on her Used to Be Young TikTok series last year. “They were being really sweet.”

Post Malone, yet another Texas native, is a featured guest on "Levii's Jeans," an ode to the famous denim brand.

"Come here ya sexy little thing, snap a picture bring it on," Posty sings on the track. "Oh girl, I wish I was your Levi's jeans the way you popping out my phone."

Linda Martell, the 82-year-old singer who became the first commercially successful Black female country music artist in the early 1970s, performs two brief spoken word interludes on the tracks "Spaghettii" and "The Linda Martell Show."

"Genres are a funny little concept, aren't they? Yes, they are," she says on the former. "In theory, they have a simple definition that’s easy to understand, but in practice, well, some may feel confined."

In a statement on Friday, Martell added, "I am proud that Beyoncé is exploring her country music roots. What she is doing is beautiful, and I'm honored to be a part of it. It's Beyoncé, after all!"

Beyoncé and Jay-Z's 6-year-old daughter Rumi Carter can be heard at the beginning of "Protector."

"Mom, can I hear the lullaby please?" she says in the track's adorable opening.

"I will lead you down that road if you lose your way. Born to be a protector, even though I know someday you’re gonna shine on your own," Beyoncé sings to her children.

Rumi's older sister, 12-year-old Blue Ivy Carter, previously appeared on "Blue" and "Brown Skin Girl" from her mom's The Lion King album.

Up-and-coming Nigerian-American artist Shaboozey is featured on two tracks, "Spaghettii" and "Sweet Honey Buckiin'."

Shaboozey, who was born and raised in Virginia, is a singer and rapper known for synthesizing country and hip-hop influences on albums like 2018's Lady Wrangler and 2022's Cowboys Live Forever, Outlaws Never Die.

His next album, Where I've Been Isn't Where I'm Going, will arrive shortly on May 31.

Louisiana's Willie Jones guests on "Just for Fun."

"I'm goin' down south just for fun, I am the man, I know it," he sings on the track's second verse.

Jones, a former X Factor contestant, is yet another Willie and yet another up-and-coming artist on the album who fuses hip-hop and radio-friendly country together in his own work.

"Welcome to the ratchet Black zydeco rodeo," he sang on his 2021 single "Down by the Riverside."

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Paul McCartney wrote the Beatles' 1968 classic "Blackbird" as a response to the civil rights movement and the Little Rock Nine students who enrolled in a segregated school in Arkansas.

"Those were the days of the civil rights movement, which all of us cared passionately about, so this was really a song from me to a Black woman, experiencing these problems in the States: 'Let me encourage you to keep trying, to keep your faith, there is hope,'" he explained in Barry Miles' 1997 book Many Years From Now.

So when Beyoncé covered "Blackbird" for Cowboy Carter, she invited four other Black women who have been coming up in the Nashville country scene to guest on the track.

Brittney Spencer, who moved to Nashville in 2013 and has since opened for Jason Isbell and Reba McEntire, performed at the Grand Ole Opry, and sung the national anthem at the Kentucky Derby, released her debut album My Stupid Life in January.

"Lookin' like Beyoncé with a lasso" is how Tanner Adell, also featured on "Blackbiird," described herself on "Buckle Bunny," the title track from her 2023 debut album.

"As one of the only black girls in country music scene, I hope Bey decides to sprinkle me with a dash of her magic for a collab," she tweeted in February. It worked.

Adell, whose music is a blend of country, pop, and hip-hop, has spoken about her love of Beyoncé many times.

"If you know me at all, you know, Beyoncé is my number one favorite entertainer and one of the entertainers I look up to most. She's an incredible vocalist, dancer, writer, woman and mother and i cannot wait for this album," she wrote in a TikTok after Cowboy Carter was announced.

In an interview with NBC's Emilie Ikeda that aired on TODAY March 29, she added that "the butterfly effect from this album will span probably the rest of our lives and for me, it felt very important to be able to support other girls that are in the same position as me and being Black women in country music."

Alabama native Tiera Kennedy, another "Blackbiird" guest who also lent harmonies to "Tyrant," has described her sound as "R&B country."

After meeting Shania Twain as a contestant on the music competition show Real Country, Kennedy got the chance to pay tribute to Shania at the 15th Annual ACM Honors in 2022, covering "From This Moment On" while wearing a pair of Twain's earrings and a dress that the iconic singer helped her pick out.

She previewed her forthcoming debut album last year with the single "Jesus, My Mama, My Therapist."

"I cannot believe it. God is so good. I'm on a @Beyonce record,” Kennedy tweeted Friday morning. "And not on one but TWO songs. You can catch me on those harms on Tyrant too!"

Singer-songwriter Reyna Roberts, who has cited both Carrie Underwood and Rihanna as influences, is also on "Blackbiird" and provides backing vocals on "Tyrant."

"I'M ON BEYONCÉ'S ALBUM," she tweeted today. "My first feature ever is with Beyoncé, Thank you God. BLACKBIIRD feature and TYRANT back vocals! Thank you to everyone who tagged her in my videos and comments, yall made this happen. This is literally a dream come true."

Roberts released her debut full-length Bad Girl Bible in 2023.