Carter lit up the nation's capital this Fourth of July with her first "Cowboy Carter" concert in the Washington, D.C.-area. The Grammy-winning singer kicked off her July Fourth show at Northwest Stadium in Landover,

One stop before Beyoncé's Lindquist feature, she took the stage in London with a meaningful alternative to her fringed Loewe and Christian Louboutin boots. Instead, the star wore a pair of custom-made high-high leather platforms by Partlow.

In a stadium of strangers dressed in fabulous fringe, denim, boots, cowboy hats and other adornments in keeping with the immaculate Cowboy Carter aesthetic, I rediscovered something that I had long misplaced: Ebullient joy.