RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — The upbeat banjo playing heard throughout Beyoncé’s newest single “Texas Hold ‘Em” was strummed by North Carolina Grammy-award winner and folk musician Rhiannon Giddens.
Giddens, a Greensboro native, said in a Facebook post on Tuesday, “I woke up yesterday morning to new music from Beyoncé, featuring none other than my banjo and viola playing throughout.”
Beyoncé had teased new music during a Verizon commercial during the Super Bowl on Sunday and dropped “Texas Hold ‘Em” along with another country record “16 Carriages.”
Giddens studied at UNC-Greensboro as a music graduate . Along with being a two time Grammy-award winner, she’s also a Pulitzer Prize-winning singer and instrumentalist and a MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient.
A big focus of her work involves uplifting the contributions of Black Americans in music that is often ignored, especially in genres like country and folk .