Shawna Virago -- Blood in her Dreams
Blood In Her Dreams, the latest album by Shawna Virago, is a shining example of what results from opening the door for queer people to places that, historically, have ostracized us. Too often, queer and trans stories are left out of talk about folk, country, and Americana music, despite our experiences being most authentic to the roots of the genre.
Virago is an iconic San Francisco-based singer-songwriter and transgender woman who’s been performing as her authentic self, as she notes in interviews, since the early ‘90s. Dubbed the ‘fairy godmother of trans country artists,’ Virago’s work is a north star for a genre struggling to connect to its roots.
Meshing the quintessential sounds of classic country, her punk roots and the storytelling aspects of folk music, Blood In Her Dreams is rife with grandiose stories and clever phrases–a fresh and welcome addition to the country genre.
Country music derives from the stories of outcasts and outlaws–the Bonnie and Clyde’s, if you will. Yet it is often these people that are blacklisted or turned away for simply existing, or forced to hide their authentic selves in order to be successful. Virago acts as a voice not for the voiceless, but the silenced. It was, and is, not uncommon for gay country, and even mainstream, artists to stay closeted because even in 2024, we are still dealing with rampant homophobia.
Blood In Her Dreams showcases Virago’s ability to create music that defies these barriers. It paints both a pointed expression of the queer experience and something wholly universal, a gift that keeps on giving throughout the entirety of the record. From the wiggly worm of a crush transforming into a butterfly of a lover, to outrunning past ghosts, to sleeping with the mayor AND his wife, BIHD is a composite of the struggle to find genuine connection that lasts without letting your past sink its claws deep enough to derail it all.
Because we can’t escape the past—both personally and historically. Being an outlaw has simply always been a part of queer history in a compulsive heterosexual society. Virago shows that these experiences are not only an important facet in the bigger country music dialogue, but that queer folks, if given the chance and airplay, would be the bedrock for a genre that’s been taken over by rap country songs and racist dog whistles.
Virago’s songs, instead, are vivid vignettes of times and places once unheard. On “This Girl Felt Hounded” we hear a tale as old as time as our narrator is inundated with endless, conflicting thoughts of a whirlwind romance with an elusive lover named…not important. As she reminisces on the dalliance, she quips: “You can’t buy a ghost a drink, so she’ll buy herself one.”
On “Eternity Street”, we hear about two star-crossed lovers, their journey to freedom, and one last devastating tryst, a romantic moment amongst the noise of a loud world. Shawna Virago narrates the pairs’ story, guiding listeners through a years-long endeavor that persists despite societal headwinds and the unforgiving force that is fate.
The love and tragedy that makes up Blood In Her Dreams is the kind of folk and country music that is frequently buried under the rubble of the genre’s worst. It has all the makings of a timeless piece of country classic: steel guitar, biting lyrics, harmonica, wisdom to keep in your back pocket. It feels like driving a pickup down a country road, a bloodhound’s ears flopping in the wind out the passenger window, and your no-good ex’s unconscious corpse under a tarp in the bed. Because like any good country album, the songs leave you thinking, “Oh shit she really did it…but they had it coming.”
And don’t they always?
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