‘Cowgirls’ by Morgan Wallen & ERNEST - Lyrics & Meaning

Arriving as part of Morgan Wallen's chart-topping, record-breaking 2023 opus, One Thing At A Time, the ERNEST-assisted ‘Cowgirls’ quickly blossomed into a hit with fans, leaving Morgan having no choice but to add it to his setlist towards the latter half of the year.

Co-written by ERN alongside his fellow songwriting heavyweights, Rocky Block, Ashley Gorley, James Maddocks and Ryan Vojtesak (otherwise known by his stage-name, Charlie Handsome), ‘Cowgirls’ is a fresh, Hip Hop-infused love letter to the titular characters.

Although ‘Cowgirls’ was initially overshadowed by the monumental, game-changing success of ‘Last Night’ and subsequent singles, ‘Thinkin’ Bout Me’, ‘Everything I Love’ and ‘Man Made A Bar’, the fact that Morgan Wallen and Ernest regularly performed the infectious track together while out on tour helped to ensure it remained one of the most popular offerings from One Thing At A Time.

As a result, it was confirmed on April 2nd, 2024 that ‘Cowgirls’ was officially being sent to Country Radio the following week, with the high-energy song en route to become Morgan Wallen's 13th Country Airplay No. 1. ‘Cowgirls’ is generally expected to be one of the last singles from Morgan's One Thing At A Time era, with the ‘Thought You Should Know’ singer-songwriter potentially weighing up whether to give another fan-favourite its chance to shine at Country Radio, ‘98 Braves’, before officially launching his follow-up album with a brand new single.

‘Cowgirls’ showcases the genre-fusing, trap-inspired sound that Morgan Wallen dips into throughout One Thing At A Time, most notably on ‘Sunrise’, ’Ain't That Some’, ‘180 (Lifestyle)’ and ‘You Proof’. Opening with an ethereal, playful electric guitar riff and a crisp, staccato beat, Morgan Wallen delivers the first verse without any drums.

Then, as Morgan charges into the hook, his signature drawl is given an extra boost of electricity through the invigorating drum pattern, with the rattling hi-hats consolidating ‘Cowgirls’ as a Hip Hop-Country crossover classic. ERNEST's vocals on the second verse are slightly softer and more intricate, juxtaposing the ferocity and fire Morgan injects into his portions of this certified earworm.

“She'll set the field on fire just cuttin' across a pasture
She'll have you fallin' for it all and then leave right after
And she got a cold heart
But she got a warm smile
Cut from the same cloth
She kinda buck wild
Little bit angel
Whole lotta outlaw
She's trouble but I'll tell you right now, y'all”

Over the course of the song, Morgan Wallen and ERNEST pay tribute to the eternally untameable spirit of cowgirls, painting the picture of their freedom through imagery of the wild landscape they tend to. Morgan toasts their red-hot, unpredictable nature through the metaphor of setting the field on fire as she cuts across the pasture, before cleverly contrasting her ‘cold heart’ with her ‘warm smile’.

Morgan underlines that their allure is irresistible - but he explains that if you do find yourself falling for a cowgirl, you better be prepared for them to break your heart as they ride off into the sunset. ‘Cowgirls’ flips the traditional story of the cowboy leaving his partner, and instead presents the cowgirl as the one holding all the cards.

“Long live cowgirls
Never gonna settle on down girls
Leave you in a lonely ghost town world
Where the sun don't rise
Rodeo for one night
Love you like a mustang
One hand on them giddy-up reins
Hole in your heart with some good aim
On a goodbye ride
But it's fine 'cause it's kinda my thing
Long live cowgirls
Yeah, long live cowgirls”

During the hook, Morgan Wallen reiterates how these cowgirls will never want to settle down and get married, and that they'll instead leave you in the dust. He builds the Wild West ambience by describing the lover as leaving him in a ‘lonely ghost town world’, where the sun doesn't rise - a symbol of the interminable pain of losing her.

He likens their passionate romance to that of a rodeo - exhilarating, addictive, but ultimately short-lived, as you're quickly bucked off and the next candidate comes along in your place. Morgan portrays the cowgirl as loving him ‘like a mustang’, again tipping his cap to her wild and free spirit, before depicting her as an outlaw gunslinger who leaves a ‘hole in his heart’. Despite the heartbreak they leave in their trail, Morgan and ERN spend ‘Cowgirls’ celebrating the fact that they can never be tamed, rather than despairing at not being able to hold onto their love.

“I hate that I love the way them kisses taste like whiskey
How they wake up, take on off, and not even miss me
Leave this heart broken, holding that smokin' gun
I guess that's just the way them wild horses run
Let 'em run”

ERNEST enters the fray here, compounding the conflicted feeling of being infatuated by the cowgirl's allure, but knowing deep down that their relationship will be brief. He explains how her kisses taste like whiskey, aligning with Morgan's depiction on the cowgirls as operating against an old-school, Wild West backdrop.

The lyric, ‘Leave this heart broken, holding that smoking gun’ contains a satisfying flurry of internal rhymes, with ERNEST then likening cowgirls to ‘wild horses’. In doing so, he doubles down on Morgan Wallen's reference to them loving ‘like a mustang’. He emphasises the message of the song by concluding his verse with the line, ‘Let ‘em run’, as he celebrates the freedom of the cowgirl lifestyle.

“Come on, cowgirls
Don't you wanna take me away?
Lay me on down, girl
With the wild kind of lovin' you make
For God's sake”

Morgan and ERNEST again highlight the song's inversion of the traditional tale of the cowboy leaving the woman, as they switch the key lyric in The Chicks’ iconic hit, ‘Cowboy Take Me Away’, crooning, “Come on, cowgirls / Don't you wanna take me away?”

Morgan and ERNEST have let the music do the talking with ‘Cowgirls’, but the duo have spoken on a number of occasions about their longstanding friendship and collaborative partnership.

Speaking to Billboard in 2023, ERNEST touched on the magic Joey Moi - who produced ‘Cowgirls’ - brings to the studio, “I think about how many country music acts Joey Moi has helped craft into a sound, and how different all of those sounds are”.

ERNEST went on to underline how he, Morgan and their good buddy, HARDY, bring a plethora of styles to the table, but that Joey is able to weave them together seamlessly, as he does on ’Cowgirls’, “My sound is a little more traditional, like [an] Opry band. HARDY’s got the rock stuff, and Morgan’s down to go the 808s route. But Joey is able to make it sound really fucking good every time”.

“She'll set the field on fire just cuttin' across a pasture
She'll have you fallin' for it all and then leave right after
And she got a cold heart
But she got a warm smile
Cut from the same cloth
She kinda buck wild
Little bit angel
Whole lotta outlaw
She's trouble but I'll tell you right now, y'all

Long live cowgirls
Never gonna settle on down girls
Leave you in a lonely ghost town world
Where the sun don't rise
Rodeo for one night
Love you like a mustang
One hand on them giddy-up reins
Hole in your heart with some good aim
On a goodbye ride
But it's fine 'cause it's kinda my thing
Long live cowgirls
Yeah, long live cowgirls

I hate that I love the way them kisses taste like whiskey
How they wake up, take on off, and not even miss me
Leave this heart broken, holding that smokin' gun
I guess that's just the way them wild horses run
Let 'em run

Long live cowgirls
Never gonna settle on down girls
Leave you in a lonely ghost town world
Where the sun don't rise
Rodeo for one night
Love you like a mustang
One hand on them giddy-up reins
Hole in your heart with some good aim
On a goodbye ride
But it's fine 'cause it's kinda my thing
Long live cowgirls
Yeah, long live cowgirls

Come on, cowgirls
Don't you wanna take me away?
Lay me on down, girl
With the wild kind of lovin' you make
For God's sake

Long live cowgirls
Never gonna settle on down girls
Leave you in a lonely ghost town world
Where the sun don't rise
Rodeo for one night
Love you like a mustang
One hand on them giddy-up reins
Hole in your heart with some good aim
On a goodbye ride
But it's fine 'cause it's kinda my thing
Long live cowgirls
Yeah, long live cowgirls
Long live cowgirls
Yeah, long live cowgirls”

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