Queer Country: "Hit 'em With Your Purse!"

The story of queer country music – and its message of hope
(BBC)
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By Addison Nugent11th June 2020

As LGBTQ+ country artists like Orville Peck and Lil Nas X blaze a trail, Addison Nugent looks at the surprising and little-known tradition of queer country music that preceded them.

In 2019, a mysterious masked crusader by the name of Orville Peck took the alternative country scene by storm with his debut album Pony. Known for his soaring vocals (a mix of Glen Campbell and Roy Orbison), fringed leather mask and haunting, erotic lyrics, Peck felt like a much-needed breath of fresh air in a genre that seemed to have stagnated since the 1970s. He, along with Lil Nas X – whose hit Old Town Road became the longest-running number-one song ever – and Trixie Mattel of RuPaul’s Drag Race fame, are at the forefront of a new wave of country music that includes the LGBTQ+ community. And although they may be considered mavericks and outliers in the largely conservative world of country music, the genre actually has a long-standing, though little-known, queer history.

Queer country and queer country musicians have arguably existed since the very beginning of the genre in the late 1920s and early 1930s. After all, queerness has been present in all aspects of society throughout human history. The very first gay country song is thought to be I Love My Fruit by The Sweet Violet Boys. More widely known by their other name, The Prairie Ramblers, the group decided to take on a pseudonym to record some scandalous songs written by their pianist Bob Miller.


https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2020/06/259.jpgOrville Peck’s debut album Pony took the alternative country scene by storm (Credit: Getty Images)

And I Love My Fruit, full of sexual innuendo, certainly was scandalous for the year 1939. Little is known about The Sweet Violet Boys or their true sexualities but it would be strange for a group of straight men in the 1930s to risk their careers if not their lives in order to masquerade as queer cowboys.

Another early queer country musician was Wilma Burgess, who had several smash hits in the 1960s including Misty Blue and Baby. Today, Burgess is often touted as the world’s first ‘out’ country singer within the music industry, although not publically. Still, Burgess wanted to avoid ‘playing straight’, and insisted that the majority of her songs remain gender neutral or ambiguous. By 1978, she had grown frustrated with the piousness of the country music scene, and left the business. A decade later, using the money she’d made in her music career, she opened Nashville’s first lesbian bar, The Hitching Post.
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2020/06/260.jpgWilma Burgess had several hits in the 1960s, and avoided ‘playing straight’ (Credit: Getty Images)

The first true queer country album was Lavender Country’s self-titled release in 1973. At the band’s helm was (and still is) singer, songwriter, and guitarist Patrick Haggerty, a lifelong gay-rights and anti-racism activist and sometime politician. In 1970, just one year after the Stonewall riots, Haggerty moved to Seattle, Washington, where he became involved with the Gay Community Social Services of Seattle, one of America's first such organisations for the queer community. Haggerty formed Lavender Country in 1972, and the band played regularly at gay pride events up and down the West Coast. The album features songs about injustice in all aspects of society but most notably in the gay community.

With songs like Come Out Singing, Lavender Country wasn’t just the first queer country album but one of the first out-and-proud albums of all time. Unlike many members of the LGBTQ+ community of his generation, Haggerty did not have to struggle to find pride later in life. His father, born on the North Dakota prairie in 1901, accepted and embraced Haggerty’s self-described “sissiness” his entire life. “My father loved me so I loved myself. My father was proud of me so I was proud of myself,” he tells BBC Culture.

https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2020/06/261.jpgPatrick Haggerty of Lavender Country has stood against injustice throughout his career (Credit: Getty Images)

His father’s acceptance carried him through his school years in the 1950s in the small town of Dry Creek, Washington, where in spite of the socially conservative time, Haggerty was wildly popular. His dad would even drive him to school dressed in full drag as the school’s glitter-covered mascot Peppy Pat, a character Haggerty created himself. As high school approached, his parents and 10 siblings began to worry that as the town’s only ‘sissy’, Haggerty might face more bullying than he had in previous years. His father gave him this advice: “You’ll be alright, just remember this: you’re no better than any of the rest of them but you’re just as Goddamn good, and if anybody gives you any grief about that, hit ’em with your purse.”

...remainder of article here: The story of queer country music – and its message of hope - BBC Culture