It makes sense that of all the songs on Beyoncé's Lemonade, the Dixie Chicks would gravitate toward "Daddy Lessons." After all, the acoustic track strays from the pop, hip hop, and R & B sounds with which Queen Bey is most associated with, and ventures into the country and folk realm the trio occupies.
And gravitate the ladies did, performing a cover of "Daddy Lessons" during a recent tour stop in England. Their take on the song was, as one might expect, excellent. Natalie Maines' powerful, twangy voice and the group's tight harmonies fit the melody perfectly.
The cover comes as a debate is raging in the country music world as to whether the song actually qualifies as "country." At CMT, Alison Bonaguro wrote: "It doesn’t sound like a country song to me, she didn’t cut it at a studio in Tennessee, and it certainly wasn’t written by a group of Nashville songwriters." But Bonaguro — whose argument seems to rest on the notion that it can't be country because it wasn't made in Nashville, TN — faced dissent even on her own website, as Claire Heinichen declared: "'Daddy Lessons' is everything I expect from a great country song."
Even though the Dixie Chicks are certainly country artists, the genre once spurned them as well — not because of their sound, but because of their political views. The "Daddy Lessons" cover has been interpreted as the women putting their middle fingers up, while vouching for Beyoncé's country chops. But statement or not, the tune is a great addition to their repertoire.