Rainbow Roundup 9/15: L’Shanah Tovah!

Happy new year to all who observe! For those of you unfamiliar with the Jewish calendar, this weekend marks Rosh Hoshanah, the new year, and next week will mark Yom Kippur, our day of repentance and desire to cleanse ourselves ahead of the new year, recommitting to striving for a more loving, joy-filled life.

My weekly missives have been kind of…bitter? lately, so this is my own pledge to hit the brakes on that. I had planned to write a bit more about Americanafest, which is also starting this weekend, and their track record with LGBTQ+ artists. There’s a lot of great work there, of course, and definitely still more to be done. But many Jews will be spending the Days of Awe (the week between the two holidays) asking for forgiveness and, in turn, forgiving others for their transgressions. So that’s an attitude I need to start taking about country music — because, as we well know, there’s a lot to be forgiven. It’s exciting that Americanafest is, at last, officially recognizing the need for LGBTQ+ spaces within the festival itself, and here’s hoping that they can, in turn, be open about their own mistakes as they move forward.

Adeem the Artist’s interview in the Nashville Scene got me thinking about how we can get the music industry — much less people at large — to reflect on their actions. As Adeem points out, it’s not necessarily that “Try That in a Small Town” was able to make it past dozens and dozens of people and get on the radio because there are so many moustache-twirling racists who wanted to see it happen, it’s that there are so many white people who do not interact with anyone who has a different perspective than themselves, and therefore couldn’t have realized just how threatening the song actually is. That’s the elasticity and fragility of white supremacy: so many people see it as normal, and then freak the fuck out when their worldview is challenged at all.

As queer people, so much of our coming out process is learning to dismantle what we thought were foundational aspects of our lives: gender roles, marriage to someone of a different sex without question, having children, family first. For some of us, this is or was a painful process, the fear that we would be isolated forever from the people we grew up with. It’s also a joyful process, discovering the strings that pull the marionettes of our society, and learning to cut them away from ourselves. I’m sure every queer person reading this can think of times when they hear a cishet person complain about relationships or family and we realize it’s not even a discussion in our own relationships.

I think that’s something that makes queer country music really powerful: we use one of the most normative genres to chip away at the very foundations of what it seeks to establish about gender, family, and society.

Anyway, I’ve got two playlists for you today: if you’re looking for some spiritual music, Rabbi Sandra Lawson (who is LGBTQ+ and an Americana artists herself) created a playlist for the new year. I’ve also put together a playlist of timely songs by queer Jewish country artists — not surprisingly, that’s a significant subsection of queer country artists overall.

Rainbow Roundup

  • I’m thrilled to announce I will be speaking at Country Radio Seminar in February 2024! CRS is the conference for mainstream country music execs and radio programmers. The people who actively decide not to play queer country artists on the radio? That’s where they hobnob. Marissa Moss wrote a chilling article about all the disgusting behavior that happens there and in other aspects of the radio side of things. It’s the belly of the best, but I hope I can advocate for queer country fans and artists while I’m there.
  • Americanafest starts this weekend! I made a guide to catch all the queer country artists here.
  • Will Groff, whose interview about drag queens and the proposed Tennessee drag ban appeared in issue 3 of Rainbow Rodeo, interviewed Allison Russell for Holler about diversifying Americana
  • Just another Jewish country thing: The Torah of Johnny Cash
  • Support disabled artists when you support Rampd
  • Are you on BlueSky? I made a feed for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC country music!
  • If you’re here, you like music zines. Longtime Wide Open Country contributor Addie Moore is taking pre-orders for their indie punk zine No Spectators
  • You can get almost 50% off the book Queer Country using this code: F21UIP
  • This thread gives advice on self-managed transition in Alabama and other states that restrict our bodily autonomy
  • And here’s a directory of DIY HRT
  • Eli Conley is running a queer songwriting circle

Album Releases

Here are all of the queer country album releases this month! Let me know if I should add something to the list!

9/8 — Jobi Riccio

9/8 — Allison Russell

9/8 — Jess Nolan

9/15 — Grace Aldridge

9/22 — Shadwick Wilde

Events

  • 9/19 — The Americana Proud showcase will be Americanafest’s first official LGBTQ+ showcase. It will feature Jessye DeSilva, Lila Blue, Denitia, Crys Matthews, and many many more.
  • 9/20 — J. Dewveall is hosting a showcase at The Underdog in Nashville with Paisley Fields, Sarah King, Angela Perley, and more!
  • 9/21 – 9/23: Amythyst Kiah, Katie Pruitt and many other incredible artists (like some guy named Tyler Childers) are playing the Healing Appalachia festival in Lewisburg, WV
  • 9/23 — Americanafest is only doing an LGBTQ+ showcase for the first time this year, but this is the fourth annual Queer Roots show during Americanafest! It will feature Crys Matthews, Mercy Bell, Julie Nolen, Wiley Gaby, Secret Emchy Society, Austin Lucas, and Julian Talamntez Brolaski — hey, we know all those people!

Artist Resources

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