Meet the quartet of Black country artists featured on Beyoncé's 'Blackbird' cover

The inclusion of African-American country artists Tanner Adell, Tiera Kennedy, Brittney Spencer and Reyna Roberts on the harmonious and spiritual Beatles cover "Blackbiird" on Beyoncé's "Cowboy Carter" is much more than an homage to the anthem Paul McCartney wrote for the White Album to address racial despair in the American South in the 1960s.

Tanner Adell

For instance, Tanner Adell's not just featured because the world-traveled singer-songwriter is a student and scholar of the 32-time Grammy winner's storied, three-decade-long career.

Rather, it's because, in her own regard, the African-American female performer has developed a rabid social media following of what she once described to The Tennessean as a "passionate, yet unseen" group of people.

The numbers don't lie: Since June 2023, her social media followers on Instagram, TikTok, and X have increased by 66% and likes on her TikTok posts have also increased by over 25%. In the past month, though, even those numbers have become irrelevant as interest in her songs like "Buckle Bunny" (in which she describes herself as "looking like Beyoncé with a lasso") has profoundly spiked.

Adell's equally comfortable from the Ryman Auditorium's stage to rural Wyoming rodeos and Rodeo Drive. She cites her path from being adopted after being born in Lexington, Kentucky, to growing up as a Mormon, splitting time between California's beaches and Star Valley, Wyoming's prairies, as key in her development.

"[Because I show the] beauty in the diversity of realities that [I've] authentically lived, my fans show up for me, equally," she said.

Tiera Kennedy

Alabama native Tiera Kennedy has already been championed by a who's who of label executives, legendary songwriters, peerless tastemakers and fans in Music City. Most recently, her acclaim has seen her gracing magazine covers locally. She has also opened for artists including Kelsea Ballerini and Danielle Bradbery, played festivals across the country and continued as host of Apple Music's The Tiera Show.

2023 saw her pop-aimed single “Jesus, My Mama, My Therapist” blend her unmistakably authentic country stylings with mainstream-ready lyricism for a critically acclaimed favorite.

Personal, relatable songwriting like on "Found It In You" (a love song inspired by her relationship with her husband and creative director Kamren Kennedy) and a joyful ode to hometown nights on the town in “Alabama Nights” are her trademarks to date in her now globally resonating career.

Brittney Spencer

For Brittney Spencer, the appearance on "Blackbiird" continues a long line of standout, high-pressure-seeming moments in which the star has shown impressive poise. In 2021, after breaking out via a Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris and Amanda Shires co-signed performance of their "Highwomen" supergroup's track "Crowded Table," she appeared on stages, including at the Ryman Auditorium opening for Shires' then-husband Jason Isbell.

She's also played multiple times at the Grand Ole Opry, brought down the house with a take on Martina McBride's "Independence Day" at the 2021 ACM Honors, sang alongside the Brothers Osborne to close the 2022 Academy of Country Music Awards, and appeared alongside Mickey Guyton and Madeline Edwards to perform "Love My Hair" at the 2021 Country Music Association Awards.

With each of her subsequent EP or album releases in the past five years, the country artist melts deeper into the core DNA of the genre as an unrestrained singer-songwriter. From '90s country inspired by The Chicks or her supporter and inspiration Reba McEntire, soulful ballads that feel like Rihanna gone more acoustic than ever, to pop that sounds like it soundtracks a 2000s era coming-of-age film, she's perhaps one of the best all-around artists in not just country, but music overall.

Reyna Roberts

As for Reyna Roberts, she's a self-professed Army brat who grew up in numerous locales, but it's her time spent as a high school wrestler with matinee-idol looks where her love of country music originated.

That mix of grit and glamour has aided her navigation from both coasts into Music City, where the past five years have emerged with her, like Adell and Spencer, being listed as a CMT Next Woman of Country. She's also been featured on ESPN, like Spencer, opened for Reba McEntire, plus also become a fixture as much in songwriting rooms as she is behind a piano or embracing, before the age of 30, the power of country's "outlaw" culture.

In 2023, she told The Tennessean about her most recent album, "Bad Girl Bible," that she had "arrived at being a classically modern outlaw presentable to country and pop audiences. My whole life has been spent preparing for the superstar future I feel God has planned for me, whenever the time is right for that to happen."

'This ain't a country album'

Beyoncé first announced her eighth studio album during a surprise Super Bowl commercial on Feb. 11. Simultaneously, she released her first two singles, "16 Carriages" and "Texas Hold 'Em." The two songs quickly took the internet by storm as many fans saw the music as a reclamation of country music's Black roots. On YouTube, Beyoncé reached over 2 million views on each song in just two days. Within weeks, Beyoncé made history as the first Black woman to top Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart when "Texas Hold 'Em" hit No. 1.

The new album is "Act II" of a three-part series. The superstar released her first act, the "Renaissance" album, on July 29, 2022, through her company Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records. "Act III" has yet to be announced.

Prior to its release, the singer opened up about "Cowboy Carter" on Instagram. Beyoncé wrote while she was "honored" to become the first Black woman to Black woman to top Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, she still hopes for the day "the mention of an artist's race, as it relates to releasing genres of music, will be irrelevant."

She revealed the new album took five years to make, adding it was "born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed … and it was very clear that I wasn't." The singer was likely referencing her 2016 performance of her song "Daddy Lessons" with The Chicks at the Country Music Association Awards, which received mixed reactions on social media.

"But, because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical archive," she wrote. "The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me. act ii is a result of challenging myself and taking my time to bend and blend genres together to create this body of work."

She signed off with, "This ain’t a Country album. This is a 'Beyoncé' album."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Beyonce's 'Blackbird' cover features quartet of Black country artists