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? Thomas Inskeep is generously keeping an archive of all music featured on this Spotify playlist.
Hurray For the Riff Raff — “Alibi”
Alynda Segarra simply can’t miss. “Alibi,” the lead single off their upcoming album The Past is Still Alive is everything you want from a country song: mournful, comforting, brimming with regret and hope at the same time. Hurray For the Riff Raff has always been brave, uncompromising — and gentle. This song of making amends amidst addiction brings Segarra’s unflinching honesty to a new level.
Austin Lucas — “Just a Girl”
Austin Lucas’ continues to release banger covers at an alarming clip. Their rendition of No Doubt’s girl power angst-out is instead a fragile, haunting interpretation of the prison and possibility that femininity can bring. In our last interview, Lucas was upfront about the isolation they’ve faced since performing femininity more publicly, and that pain is clear in “Just a Girl” — particularly they emphasis they place on the line “guess I’m so kind of freak.”
Laura Jane Grace — “Hole In My Head”
Including this song on a queer country playlist might be a little subjective but Grace has always had a little Americana twang lurking in the depths of her anthemic rock’n’roll. (Plus, she’s taking Mya Byrne out on tour with her, so I suspect other songs from Hole In My Head will have more of a twang.) Grace’s frenetic energy makes spinning out seem joyful, and it’s certainly a great introduction for what will prove to be a good old-fashioned big, hooky, loud album.
Willi Carlisle — “When The Pills Wear Off”
Willie Carlisle pulls no punches on “When The Pills Wear Off.” Carlisle sings bitterly and nostalgically of his harder days, meditating on the way his mindset changes as his current (sanctioned) medication regime fades between doses. The song is mournful and hopeful all at the same time — a recounting of where he and others have been, how far they’ve come, and grief for those who did not make the same journey. A portion of the proceeds from “Where the Pills Off” will be donated to the music therapy program at Hope In the Hills, a West Virginia-based charity that provides recovery programs throughout Appalachia.
Pablo Mercedes — “Ballad of San Juan (Live)”
This live rendition of Pablo Mercedes “Ballad of San Juan” has an appealing shakiness to it. The banjo sounds ghostly and the guitar tinny, as if Mercedes is singing to us from a road house. Mercedes, a UK punk veteran, gives the song a ’70s spin to it, further giving the song the feeling that it’s an uncovered artifact of wilder and more desperate times.