Carter Faith, Laci Kaye Booth and Baby Nova Pull the Trigger on One of 2026’s Best Songs With “Pearl Handled Pistol”
- All Country News
- Jul 28
- 3 min read
Some songs arrive politely. “Pearl Handled Pistol” kicks down the door in high heels.
Carter Faith has joined forces with Laci Kaye Booth and Baby Nova for a smoldering new version of “Pearl Handled Pistol,” a standout from Faith’s newly released deluxe album, Cherry Valley Forever. The result is more than a collaboration between three of country music’s most magnetic rising voices. It is a warning shot, a revenge fantasy and, quite possibly, one of the best songs released in 2026 so far.
Now accompanied by a cinematic official music video directed by Lily Nelson and Chase Denton, the track’s femme fatale mythology is given a world of its own, one where desire is dangerous, confidence is ammunition and underestimating a woman comes with consequences.
Three Voices, One Smoking Gun
Written by Faith and Booth alongside powerhouse songwriters Jessie Jo Dillon and Chris Tompkins, “Pearl Handled Pistol” feels immediately built for legend.
The title alone sounds like something passed down through generations, a beautiful object with a violent history. The song delivers on that promise, wrapping razor-sharp storytelling in dark, seductive production and harmonies that seem to circle the listener before closing in.
Faith, Booth and Nova each bring a distinct kind of danger to the track. Faith possesses an almost ghostly restraint, singing with the calm of someone who already knows how the story ends. Booth’s smoky delivery adds grit and sensuality, while Nova injects an unpredictable flash of theatrical electricity.
Together, they do not compete for attention. They build tension.
Their voices stack and intertwine until “Pearl Handled Pistol” feels less like a traditional feature and more like three characters stepping into the same Western noir, each carrying her own secrets.
Confidence With Consequences
At its core, “Pearl Handled Pistol” is about the thrill of standing completely inside your own power.
The song plays with desire, independence and revenge, but its sharpest edge comes from the way it refuses to apologize for any of them. This is not a wounded woman asking to be understood. It is a self-possessed woman who has already decided she does not need permission.
“When we wrote this song, I knew from the title, it needed to feel like a woman standing in her own skin, drenched in confidence,” Booth shares. “Those kind of songs have always given me life through second hand confidence.”
That phrase, secondhand confidence, gets to the heart of why songs like this matter. The best female anthems do not merely describe strength. They lend it to the listener for three or four minutes at a time.
Booth says Baby Nova was a natural choice for the collaboration because of the authenticity, sensuality and empowerment she brings to her own artistry. Hearing the finished track, it is difficult to imagine the song without her.
A New Chapter in Country’s Outlaw-Feminine Tradition
It would be easy to trace the song’s lineage back to The Chicks or Pistol Annies. “Pearl Handled Pistol” shares their taste for wicked wit, female solidarity and stories in which badly behaved men should probably start sleeping with one eye open.
But Faith, Booth and Nova are not simply recreating that tradition.
They are pushing it into stranger, moodier territory.
The song feels rooted in country music, but its atmosphere is widescreen and nearly gothic. There is classic Western imagery in its bones, yet the presentation feels modern, stylish and slightly surreal. It is country music through the lens of a revenge thriller, beautiful enough to draw you closer and dangerous enough to make that decision feel unwise.
The accompanying video magnifies that energy, transforming the song into a cinematic tale of vengeance. Every glance, costume and carefully staged moment reinforces the central idea: femininity and power are not opposites. Here, beauty is part of the threat.
“Pearl Handled Pistol” Does Not Miss
With Cherry Valley Forever, Carter Faith continues to prove that she is building one of country music’s most intriguing worlds, romantic, haunted, glamorous and emotionally lethal.
Bringing Laci Kaye Booth and Baby Nova into that world only makes it more compelling.
“Pearl Handled Pistol” is stylish without becoming hollow, confident without relying on empty slogans and nostalgic without sounding borrowed. It honors the lineage of country’s most fearless female collaborations while establishing a chemistry entirely its own.
Three voices. One weapon. No wasted shots.
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