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Meet the notorious outlaw Cherie Lee. She’s a powerful gunslinger with a thirst for vengeance that rivals any Tarantino movie protagonist. She’s currently hunting The Bootcut Boys, the gang who murdered her sheriff father, from Texas to Montana.
Also worth noting: She’s entirely fictional, and she’s the titular heroine of country crossover star Shaboozey’s new concept album, The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales, which dropped July 31.
If Cherie’s story sounds like it’s pulled straight from a murder ballad, that’s by design. Shaboozey’s fourth album is intended to take the listener on a sonic journey, one that spans frontier towns and open desert, loosely following Cherie’s pursuit of vigilante justice.
Shaboozey’s “Born to Die” is the lead single from the Grammy winner’s new album, The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales. (Credit: Shaboozey via YouTube)
This musical world-building might seem like a career curveball coming from Shaboozey, who is possibly best known for his infectious 2024 breakout hit, “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” The country-pop interpolation of J-Kwon’s 2004 club bop earned Shaboozey a 19-week-long stint at number one on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. Not to mention, a permanent spot in the jukebox rotation at every dive bar ever.
That catchy, clap-along anthem is a far cry from this latest narrative-driven, 20-track album, complete with theatrical monologues from the likes of Jamie Foxx, Teyana Taylor, and Sam Elliott.
But The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales would only feel like a tone shift if you haven’t been paying close attention. Shaboozey has been rapping and singing about all things Western since long before this year (if his sophomore album title, Cowboys Live Forever, Outlaws Never Die, is any indication). Even before the release of his debut, Lady Wrangler, in 2018, he was reportedly contemplating a country concept album but ultimately scrapped the idea.
All to say, this is not a passing phase for the Virginia native. And the rural references he makes on Cherie Lee—allusions to old-school cowboy standards and a deep appreciation for oral traditions of storytelling—show it.
Rural Echoes
The experience of listening to Cherie Lee is like watching a high-drama Western (save for maybe the second single “Cowgirl” which, no complaints here, is essentially “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” dressed up in a pair of chaps).
It’s got standoffs at high noon and sordid nights spent in the saloon, all depicted through genre-blending songs that mesh elements of hip-hop, folk, bluegrass, Americana, and more.
A thrumming harmonica opens the album’s intro, a warning about the bloodshed to come from Jamie Foxx’s narrator, who delivers his message as if he’s passing by on horseback (“Just know, there’s a hefty price to pay for revenge…”). Bluegrass-inspired boom-chick rhythms make up the backbeat on the foreboding “‘Til Sunday.” “Sweet Revenge” reveals Cherie’s origins over a crooning fiddle. Lyrics sprinkled throughout paint vivid images of “lone trails,” “dirt roads,” and “canyons of sagebrush.”
The cover art for Shaboozey’s latest album. (Credit: American Dogwood)
Cherie Lee also features soundscapes of ponies whinnying and campfires crackling—which are some of the weaker moments on the album. They can be overkill, especially when Shaboozey’s already transported the listener West through his sharper, subtler musical choices. He doesn’t really need the help of a soundboard.
As discussed on the Rural Remix podcast, Twang, one instrument, sound, or reference alone doesn’t make a song quintessentially “rural.” But, excusing one or two heavy-handed sound effects, the core of Cherie Lee isn’t pandering. It feels reverent, like Shaboozey is joining in on the tradition of ballad singing while paying tribute to the greats of Western music.
Maybe the most explicit homage to rural musical culture comes on the final track, an epilogue where masked country maverick Orville Peck performs folk classic “The Streets of Laredo.” The gold-standard cowboy’s lament (which was famously recorded by Marty Robbins, who Shaboozey cites as a major artistic influence) is a fitting closer. It shows, firstly, that Shaboozey has done his homework and, secondly, that he understands the foundations of rural music.
“One thing I associate with rural types of music is the oral tradition,” explained Daily Yonder editor emeritus Tim Marema in an interview for Twang. “The blues, Appalachian music, the fiddle tunes…the way [they] survived was by being passed on in a community.”
After all, with its many spoken interludes, Cherie Lee is a tale shared from person to person. Ending on “The Streets of Laredo,” a song about a dying man passing on his own life’s story, feels like another nod to the importance of that ongoing rural practice.
Gold Rush
It appears that the days of people only recognizing Shaboozey from “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” are numbered.
Thanks to mostly favorable reviews from critics and his upcoming “Outlaws Never Die” tour generating more buzz, Cherie Lee could be primed for some Grammy recognition come next February.
Shaboozey accepting his first Grammy award. (Credit: Rich Polk via Billboard)
This possibility brings up interesting questions about how such a genre-defying album will be categorized, especially given the Recording Academy’s long history of excluding Black artists from the country space. Beyoncé’s historic Best Country Album win in 2025 for Cowboy Carter—which featured vocals from Shaboozey on “SPAGHETTII” and “SWEET HONEY BUCKIIN’”—marked a step in the right direction.
But it was a small step, considering the amount of racist backlash Beyoncé received as a result, and the fact that in the wake of Cowboy Carter’s success, the Recording Academy split the Best Country Album award into two separate categories going forward: Best Contemporary Country Album and Best Traditional Country Album.
Some argued that these new delineations will make room for oft-overlooked subgenres like Americana to shine. Others saw it as a thinly-veiled attempt to shift the goalpost, so that Black artists get pigeonholed into limiting genre boxes rather than take home the most coveted prizes of the night.
At last year’s Grammys, Shaboozey himself became the first Black man to take home the award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance for “Amen,” his collab with Jelly Roll. The ambitious Cherie Lee presents an opportunity for him to continue that victory streak.
Win or lose, there are no one-trick ponies here: Shaboozey’s got much more in him than just “another bar song for you and all your friends.”
This article first appeared in The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, recommendations, retrospectives, and more. Join the mailing list today to have future editions delivered straight to your inbox.
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The post Shaboozey Goes West in His New Rural-Inspired Concept Album appeared first on The Daily Yonder.
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