Check out “You’re My Country Music” a recent essay I wrote in the Journal of Popular Music Studies about why I started putting on these shows and what queer country means to me.

As the bandleader of Karen & the Sorrows, I have been putting on queer country shows in Brooklyn, NY since 2011 including the Queer Country Quarterly, Gay Ole Opry extravaganzas, and Another Country, a day-long festival in 2017 which brought together queer, trans, and/or poc musicians to explore the question what is country music and who is it for? 

In 2015 we were proud to welcome to the family Queer Country West Coast, hosted by Eli Conley in the Bay Area!

The Queer Country Quarterly is still happening as a livestream in quarantine, so please sign up for our mailing list to hear about upcoming shows! Or for more info, contact karenandthesorrows[at]gmail.com. 

with love and country music,
karen

p.s. Some good recent articles about queer country in general:

“Sound Out: Coming Home to Lavender Country,” Bitch Magazine, Kim Kelly, June 18th, 2020.

“The Story of Queer Country Music—And its Message of Hope,” BBC, Addison Nugent, June 11th, 2020.

“A Brief History of Queer Country Music, from Lavender Country to Orville Peck,” The Boot, Rachel Cholst, updated June 4th, 2020.