Queer Pride, Queer Pining
A playlist for country queers who yearn.
Pride is a season for rejoicing just as much as it is about remembering the tragedies that have happened in order for us to gain the rights we have today. To me, Pride has often felt as a double-sided coin, always a yin and yang. There is so much pride in celebrating who you are, so much importance in recognizing the accomplishments that have allowed you to live your truth. But there is also sorrow – a queer heartbreak (especially that first one) can feel like the heavens itself are imploding.
Folk and country also often echo this dichotomy. These genres have a distinct way of tugging at your heartstrings. Country and folk are two styles of music that often blend together to make heartache relatable, raw, and emotional in a stripped-down style. Lyrics are often yearning and romantic.
Queer country artists are just one example of how a community can find solace in yearning.
There can be pride in yearning. That longing, grasping feeling that someone you love is just the teensiest bit out of reach has always felt akin to queerness – at least, to me. Regardless of relationship status, the season of Pride serves as an annual reminder that love is always just around the corner. It’s hopeful and melancholy all in one. And if there’s one thing that country does well, it’s songs about yearning.
Even if you’re more than happy to dance your way through Pride Month, these queer country tunes will have you looking wistfully out the window, wondering when your Stetson-hat-wearing lover will come back. These seven tracks share emotion, love, longing, and desire in a way that only queer artists can. For all the yearning, slightly melancholy, more-than-a-little-bit romantic country queers.
Lavender Country is often hailed as one of history’s most iconic queer country bands, as their self-titled album, released in 1973, has been referred to as the first gay-themed album in the genre's history. Leader, singer and guitarist Patrick Haggerty had a long history of queer, antii-fascist, and anti-racist activism, dating back decades. The band reunited in 2014, recording one last album before Haggerty’s death in 2022.
This song, released on their second (and final) album, has a conforming, familiar sound. Haggerty sings with a country twang, serenading over the steady bassline and echoing piano chords that are so integral to blues. Feeling both old and new at the same time, there’s something just too relatable about a song surrounding the idea of getting ignored at a gay bar.
Released on Denitia’s second full-length album, “Highways” is a track that reminds of a long road trip where the destination isn’t nearly as important as going somewhere. Invoking the saying, “It's not the destination, it's the journey,” is cheesy, but rings true when it comes to this soulful song. It’s so appealing partly because it’s impossible to pin down, much like the rest of this album. It’s part folk, part country, part alternative – and keeps listeners wanting more. Denitia’s lyrics search for the idea of “home,” wherever that may be, whoever that may be with. It’s partly an acknowledgment of a goodbye, a juxtaposition of what comes from realizing that you have to leave someone in order to get to where you need to go. Denitia’s next album, titled Sunset Drive, will be out September 6, 2024 – and the lead single, “Back to You,” is out now – so keep her on your radar throughout Pride Month and beyond.
Joy Oladokun said once that she was inspired to start making music after hearing Tracy Chapman play guitar. This influence is definitely noticeable on Oladokun’s fourth album, Proof Of Life, where “Changes” is the second track. Filled with country-folk anthems, “Changes” almost resonates as a mirror to Denitia’s track, “Highways.” Both songs talk about the necessity of change, movement and vulnerability, but “Changes” feels more like an idealistic understanding. It's a tribute to how much life has changed you, but understanding there’s no progress if you’re stagnant. The song ends on a hopeful note: “We're still holding on and we're still trying/ Life's always been a little dangerous/ But I don't wanna stay the same, so I'm tryna keep up with the changes.”
Adeem the Artist’s latest album, Anniversary, was released just before Pride Month began. “White Mule, Black Man” is the last track on the record and aptly begins with the lyrics, “Is it too much to do one more?” Without waiting for an answer, Adeem begins.
This album doesn’t shy away from its queerness or from America’s messy history of intolerance and politics. “White Mule, Black Man” is the perfect way to end the record, because it encapsulates everything the project stands for. The track isn’t sung so much as it is spoken with a country twang while a guitar strums gently in the background. It acts as a tribute, quite explicitly mentioning times in history when Knoxville, Tennessee has been cruel and racist towards Black Americans. This track reminds that Black history and country music are so deeply intertwined – and how this genre resonates deeply across the Black community, and has for decades.
Out of all 20 tracks on Big Thief’s fifth album, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, “Certainty” feels the queerest to me. To know something with certainty is to know it without a doubt; it’s to feel so undeniable and indisputable, that a certain thing will be what it is. This song isn’t about being certain as much as it wanting that unequivocal confidence that you love someone for certain.
The lyrics describe a yearning, but the certainty about love isn’t guaranteed: “I love you, still don't know/ My certainty is wild, weaving/ For you, I am a child, believing/ You lay beside me sleeping on a plane /In the future.” This is a song about desire, and fear the certainty that this feeling of yearning will one day disappear. It’s bittersweet and slightly melancholy, with repeating guitar chords, making it a great queer country tune.
Big Thief’s lead vocalist, Adrianne Lenker, re-recorded her own version of the band’s track, “Vampire Empire,” earlier this year. Despite the lyrics in both versions being nearly identical, this version of the track feels so much more raw and emotional.
“I wanted to see you naked, I wanted to hear you scream,” Lenker sings. “Wanted to kiss your skin and your everything/ I wanted to be your woman, I wanted to be your man/ I wanted to be the one that you could understand,” the queer influences of this track are explicitly mentioned. While the Big Thief version leans more to alternative/indie, Lenker’s solo version – with just herself, an acoustic guitar, and a violin being lightly plucked in the background – is a country-folk reimagining that works incredibly well.
If you’re looking for a song that feels like it’s straight out of a quintessential country band in the early 2000s (see: Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” and Rascal Flatts’s “What Hurts The Most”) then look no further than “When Your Home Don’t Feel Like Home.” This whole album, aptly titled Gay Country, is Brian Falduto’s first, and I can’t wait to see what else he releases in the future. This track is full of unapologetically queer and Western love songs that are sure to make you feel super nostalgic.
I’ve saved the best track on this list for last. Orville Peck has been a queer country staple for years now and it’s not hard to see why. This track, featuring Willie Nelson, is, in the simplest of terms, about cowboys being in love with each other. It draws parallels between the leather-bound Western wear and the leather subculture within the queer community. There’s no subtext here and I love that. The duet between Nelson and Peck is great: their vocals mesh incredibly well and the backing guitar gives a Western waltz vibe that will have you keeping this track on repeat all throughout Pride.
Photo Credit: Orville Peck by Ben Prince
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Great recommendations, but the Willi Carlisle snub is insane.