Rainbow Ruckus 10/29: Bryan Ruby, Arend Lee Jessurun, The Forgetmenauts, and More!

Every week, Rainbow Rodeo brings you the best new queer country music! Listen to this playlist on Spotify! Thanks to Elliott for making a parallel list on Apple Music! Listen to the parallel list on Tidal. Missed a week? TA Inskeep is generously keeping an archive of all music featured on this Spotify playlist.

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• Bryan Ruby is just one of those people who conveys heartbreak with mastery and beauty. On "come back," an acoustic version of the song on his recent EP "found & lost," foregrounds Ruby's impressive ability to communicate through his best instrument: his voice.
• Arend Lee Jessurun returns with their haunting political folk song "Is That a Threat Or a Promise?" You can probably guess whom it's about, but Jessurun's lilting delivery brings home just how frightening it is to even ask the question.
• If you prefer your frights to be more supernatural, The Forgetmenauts more than deliver a sense of dread on their gothicana murder ballad "Gay Werewolf Murder Ballad." It's no secret that horror movie monsters are metaphors for social pariahs we dare not speak of; The Forgetmenauts communicate their metaphor with just the right measures of camp and outrage.
• Emily Johnson-Erday watched her hometown of Asheville flood from Brooklyn, but she wasn't helpless. Her song "Watch the Water Rise" brings home the horror of distance and disaster – and you can support the continuing relief efforts.
• Talk about a dream team: Brittany Ann Tranbaugh, Joh Chase, and Valley Queen team up on the queer folk pop stunner "Gossamer Thread." The gauzy production fully captures the woozy euphoria and desire of a new love.