Beloveds, the QCQ is back! With two of our favorite fabulous stars, Secret Emchy Society and Mya Byrne! And, of course, your faithful host, Karen & the Sorrows. Please contribute if you can! Venmo @karenandthesorrows and your tips will help support the musicians. And if you’re in Brooklyn, you can still order delivery from Branded! Or order cute Branded merch from wherever you are! Check out www.brandedsaloon.com to support our favorite bar.

The Queer Country Quarterly is back on Thursday, June 25th at 8pm ET! With Rahne Alexander from Baltimore, Jobi Riccio from Boston, Catherine the Great from Roanoke, Virginia, and your host Karen & the Sorrows coming to you from Brooklyn! And we’ll be raising money for our local bail funds to support the protests!

Please contribute if you can! Venmo @karenandthesorrows and your tips will help support the musicians and our local bail funds.

And if you’re in Brooklyn, you can still order delivery from Branded! Or order cute Branded merch from wherever you are! Check out www.brandedsaloon.com to support our favorite bar.

More about the musicians:
Rahne Alexander (www.rahne.com) is an intermedia artist based in Baltimore, Maryland. She performs music with several bands, including Santa Librada, 50’♀, White Wing Dove, and Flaming Creatures. She is also an an essayist, contributing to anthologies such as the Lambda Literary Award-winning Take Me There: Trans and Genderqueer Erotica and the Lammy-nominated Resilience Anthology, and her first book of collected essays, Heretic to Housewife, was published by Neon Hemlock in 2019. Her video art has been screened in galleries and festivals across the country, and she is a former organizer for the Transmodern Festival and the Maryland Film Festival.

Jobi Riccio (www.jobiriccio.com) is a songwriter and performer from Denver, Colorado, currently based in Boston, MA. Inspired by artists ranging from Buck Owens to Joni Mitchell, and the bluegrass community she came of age in, she writes songs that meld classic country sounds with modern sensibilities. She has received acclaim for her writing, including winning the 2019 NewSong Music Competition and being named a finalist in the 2018 Rocky Mountain Folks Festival Songwriter’s Showcase. Her Debut EP “Strawberry Wine” is an ode to the women of country music she grew up singing along to in her bedroom, and is streaming everywhere now.

catherine the great (www.catherinethegreatmusic.com) is the solo project of Catherine Backus, one-half of twinsome duo the Skipperdees. A native East-Tennessean and graduate of the University of Georgia (go dawgs, go b-52’s), Catherine now resides in Virginia, where she splits her musical time between playing bluegrass with old dudes and singing songs she wrote. She won the 2017 Merlefest Chris Austin Songwriting Contest, and her music has drawn comparisons to Kathleen Edwards, Lori McKenna, and Gillian Welch.

The Queer Country Quarterly is back! I recognize that technically this makes it monthly, but QCQ is more fun to say so I’m sticking with it. Livestreaming with you in April was so lovely, I can’t wait to do it again. And it’s a really special line-up: We’ve got mandolin superstar Maddie Witler! And Nadine Hubbs, author of the secret queer fourth verse of Jolene and everybody’s favorite book, Rednecks, Queers & Country Music, will be playing Cajun accordion! Plus, I’ll be your host as usual and play a few songs for you, too.

Please contribute to the musicians if you can! Venmo @karenandthesorrows and your tips will all go directly to the musicians. And if you’re in Brooklyn, you can still order delivery from Branded! Or order cute Branded merch from wherever you are! Check out www.brandedsaloon.com to support our favorite bar

More about the musicians:

Maddie Witler hails originally from LaCrescenta, CA, and currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. Maddie picked up the mandolin when she was 14 and fell in love with the instrument and bluegrass music. She attended the Berklee College of Music from 2010-2014. Maddie has been a member of the Lonely Heartstring Band since it began in 2012. Over the years she has also performed with folks like Peter Rowan, Darol Anger, Michael Daves, Tony Trischka, Molly Tuttle, and she is currently touring full time with Della Mae.

By day, Nadine “Dean” Hubbs is a musicologist and gender, sexuality, and class scholar whose writings on these subjects include Rednecks, Queers, and Country Music, described by NPR’s Jewly Hight as “one of the most important scholarly discourses on country music of this decade” and by PopMatters as “invaluable.” She discussed “Jolene” on last fall’s Dolly Parton’s America podcast and premiered a new fourth verse, letting the straight world in on what queer listeners had long assumed. Dean teaches at University of Michigan and was bassist, vocalist, and accordion player for the Ann Arbor Cajun-zydeco band The Pittsfield Ramblers.

Friends, I put together a stretch of really special Queer Country Quarterly/Monthlies this spring because there are so many amazing musicians from around the country I can’t wait to introduce you to. So we’re gonna livestream them all!

Please contribute to the musicians if you can! Venmo @karenandthesorrows and your tips will all go directly to the bands. And if you’re in Brooklyn, you can still order delivery from Branded! Head over to www.brandedsaloon.com to support our favorite bar.

Now let’s talk about this kickass line-up:

First of all, we’ve got the band Mery Steel from Columbus, OH. I got to play with them on tour this fall and omg they are so, so good. They just released a live video album and this song is my favorite—it’s been in my head since November: https://youtu.be/vCveC4HeW18.

Second of all, we have country crooner Andrew Sa from Chicago and omg his voice! People throw the term “voice of an angel” around a lot, but sometimes that’s the only correct description. He’s got a new album coming out soon that I can’t share with you yet, but trust me it is really special. Here’s a preview of one of the songs from the fabulous cosmic country shows he curates in Chicago! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9kKHjvQn5s

Third of all, we’ve got our hometown hero Viva, who is going to share some new songs from the musical western she’s been writing called called Beautiful, Evil, Lost. If you don’t already know what a guitar goddess Viva is, then please watch this asap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4_YNKtpfvA.

And of course, I’ll be your faithful host, as usual! And also do an opening set to kick things off. A little more about Karen & the Sorrows: www.karenandthesorrows.com

See you soon!

love,
karen