The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales

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It begins with a harmonica and a throaty introduction promising bloodshed delivered by Jamie Foxx: “This is a tale about revenge and what lengths a woman will go to get her.” <i>The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales</i>, Shaboozey’s fourth studio album, is a curve ball from the chart-topping country force. Instead of building on the success of his breakout single, “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” with an album of like-sounding hit, he constructed a sunbaked, sinister world—led by a heroine named Cherie Lee seeking vengeance against The Bootcut Boy, a gang of outlaws who murdered her sheriff father—for a proper concept album. This prompted a process change-up: Shaboozey and his collaborators wrote a script before jotting down a single musical note, as well as a graphic novel. “I would get chills reading some parts of this story,” he tells Apple Music. His longtime reverence for murder ballads and outlaw country is apparent in the rich instrumentation, the pensive guitar-picking, and every lonesome harmonica solo, all of which helped bring Cherie to life while bolstering the album’s rebel spirit. “I get a lot of strength from the idea of an outlaw,” he explain, name-checking Johnny Cash, Marty Robbin, Waylon Jenning, Willie Nelson, and others as inspiration. “When I read their stories and listen to their music, it’s like, man, they were kind of just like me. They weren’t always accepted or honored the way that you would think. Those are the guys that we all look up to and want to be as country artist.” Still, there’s a reason why Shaboozey didn’t cast himself as the main character in Cherie’s story. “The truth is women are extremely powerful, and they’re formidable force,” he say. “That’s just what I felt like was the only thing that could stop these outlaw.” Drama throbs throughout <i>Cherie Lee</i>, thanks in no small part to the weight of Shaboozey’s voice and those of the star-studded cast of collaborators he brought into his outlaw fold. Barn burner <b>“Cowgirl,”</b> the standout single, truly is “another bar song for you and all your friend.” Foxx isn’t the only actor on the tracklist: Sam Elliott, who’s played many a mustachioed cowboy/bandit/sheriff, portrays a bellowing lawman, and Teyana Taylor briefly speaks as Cherie herself at one point. Gunna’s bars anchor the foreboding trap-country anthem <b>“High Noon”</b>; Leon Bridges joins Shaboozey for the hazy <b>“Burn It Down,”</b> while Kehlani offers up verses she wrote herself on swoon-worthy duet <b>“Bullets & Blade.”</b> .

via Apple Music

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