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.
Elliott Novak — “He Didn’t Text Back Tonight (feat. Jackson)”
(CW: Suicide)
Elliott Novak’s got quite the ear for catchy pop tunes and grooves — so catchy that it’ll take a listen or two to parse the tragedy behind “He Didn’t Text Back Tonight” because you’ll be a bit busy bopping. Jackson’s gravelly voice sets the tone for a story of innocence lost as the protagonist outs himself to his mother because he hasn’t heard back from his boyfriend. The verses alternate between the young boy and his mother’s perspectives, before concluding with an unfortunate pastiche. The slide guitar does more than set the tone here. (PS — Elliott generously keeps the Apple Music playlist updated!)
Kelsey Montanez — “Right Time to Win”
Chicago singer-songwriter Kelsey Montanez unleashes her inner badass on “Right Time to Win.” The songs feels like it was born in a biker bar, with Montanez’s menacing purr asserting the right to do whatever it takes to get what’s yours. This is one to blast when you’re getting ready for a big night out.
Annika Jayne — “Un livre et un cafe”
Mastodon hasn’t exactly become the Twitter replacement we all hoped, but it’s a great place to find dedicated DIY artists — and that’s how I came across Annika Jayne. Jayne is German, but has always written in English since a summer abroad in her youth. The song, in English and French, captures a quiet afternoon in the yard — and the momentary peace we all yearn for.
Pink Williams — “You’ll Never See Me Cry For Mitch McConnell”
Pink Williams is a master at writing songs that make you think “wait — did he really just say that?” But, reader, he did, and “You’ll Never See Me Cry” is Pink at top form: classic country sounds with no-holds-barred radical politics. In response to McConnell’s seeming health problems, Pink says: fuck that. After all, these guys spent the ’80s mocking AIDS. Do they deserve our pity when they gave us none?
Boy Golden — “The King of Western Swing”
Boy Golden‘s another one with a knack for trad country songs, and on this one, he takes Spade Cooley to task. The hotshot country guitarist was also a murderer, and Boy Golden appropriates Cooley’s licks to call into question whether or not he should be venerated at all. The encyclopedic lyrics contrast with Boy Golden’s chatty delivery, the song about your average country bad boy spiraling into something much darker.
Izzy Heltai — “25”
Izzy Heltai has been releasing a steady stream of songs off his upcoming EP, mostly myself again (10/20), but this is the strongest one yet. Where Heltai has been soft-spoken and confessional in his last few songs — perhaps taking a few pages from Phoebe Bridgers — “25” is confrontational and not afraid to take up space. The song is a lament for Heltai’s bad habit of worrying his youth today, while he also wrestles with being a trans adult with few role models. Emotional and expansive, it feels like Heltai is breaking down significant walls with this song.