\n<\/p>\n
\n\tPaul Cauthen<\/a> released his latest album, Book of Paul<\/em>, last week. Like other LPs in the Texas native\u2019s catalog, the record ripples with Cauthen\u2019s God-given swagger and gift for rhythm. Safe country music is not what Cauthen makes. Perhaps that\u2019s what put the man known as \u201cBig Velvet\u201d on the radar of a certain pop star who was releasing a high-profile country album back in 2024.<\/p>\n \n\tIn a new interview on Rolling Stone<\/em>\u2019s Nashville Now<\/em> podcast, Cauthen recounts how the unnamed artist \u2014 \u00a0who is clearly Beyonc\u00e9 \u2014 came to him looking for songs for Cowboy Carter<\/a><\/em>. According to the \u201cCocaine Country Dancing\u201d singer, the superstar heard his music thanks to an assistant who worked for Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s family and, as it turns out, went to high school with Cauthen.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cShe started playing my stuff and the family started loving what I do. And then their producers came, found out I was in Silverlake in California, and showed up in a black Suburban,\u201d Cauthen says. \u201cThree producers come out and listen to what I\u2019m doing: \u2018We love that one, we love that one\u2026\u2019 I was doing this for my record in a way, and now we\u2019re going to move in for doing it for a big pop star.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tCauthen and his collaborator Beau Bedford changed gears. \u201cBeau and I pivoted and started churning out songs,\u201d Cauthen says. \u201cIt kind of put me in a whole different writing space, writing for a big pop star. I put a pop-centric edge on my own honest writing and what I think is true. It really pivoted for me in a cool way.\u201d<\/p>\n