The 25 Best Country-Soul Albums

However culture-shifting history proves Beyoncé’s new album, Cowboy Carter, to be, it’s not unprecedented. For generations, artists have blurred the supposed lines between country music, R&B, soul, funk, gospel, rock & roll, and other genres that sprang from the same American well. It goes back to the days of 78 rpm shellac discs, when certain records were segregated as “hillbilly music” and “race music.” And some of the greatest recordings of the 20th and 21st centuries have been made by artists — of varied backgrounds — flexing both country and soul bonafides.