discovering the queer country scene has honestly been so healing because most queer musicians i've seen recommended for years i just couldn't really connect with because it wasn't the sort of music i listened to or had investment in and with queer country it's like. yes. this is the language i speak in. this is Fuck You, I Belong Here Too, not just as a queer person in the country but as a rural person among (sub)urban queers, and saying it with a laugh. when will my hometown take pride in me, goddamn it
Drop the list!!
FIRST: rachel holst does the adobe & teardrops blog as well as the rainbow rodeo newsletter & zine. look into the black opry also, there are plenty of black queer country/folk/americana artists & there is a lot of collaboration between them and other queer country/folk/americana musicians
my personal list:
- adeem the artist (especially the new album, white trash revelry)
- paisley fields (stay away from my man is a good old fashioned honky tonk jam about gay on gay violence)
- jake blount (the new faith is an afrofuturist album using roots music to explore life after climate collapse, HIGHLY recommend)
- sarah shook & the disarmers (especially the album sidelong, ESPECIALLY the songs fuck up & dwight yoakam)
- lavender country (everything but especially cryin' these cocksucking tears. patrick haggerty sadly passed in 2022 and we lost a real one. he self-described as a screaming marxist bitch)
- flamy grant (okay so. bible belt baby is Technically a christian album that i was tricked into listening to. but listen. what did you drag me into is an instant classic)
- mercy bell (especially who said we were friends. i can't hear the lyric "mea culpa/here's a gulpa/my drink in your face" and NOT recommend it)
- amythyst kiah (if you haven't heard black myself by now what even are you doing. go listen to it)
- do you want to speedrun a depressive episode as a queer woman who fears you may have too much in common with your father? listen to i drink by mary gauthier now
- karen & the sorrows (there is a lot to recommend karen pittelman and the work she has done for queer country artists but i'm a useless lesbian so i'm submitting for consideration a photo of the red dress from the mv for guaranteed broken heart that i think about a normal amount:










