Lavender Country
Lavender Country | |
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Americana | |
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Labels | Gay Community Social Services of Seattle, Paradise of Bachelors, Don Giovanni Records |
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Lavender Country was an American country music band formed in 1972 whose self-titled 1973 album is the first known gay-themed album in country music history.[1] Based in Seattle, Washington, the band originally consisted of lead singer and guitarist Patrick Haggerty (1944–2022),[2][3] keyboardist Michael Carr, singer and fiddler Eve Morris and guitarist Robert Hammerstrom. Lavender Country has released two studio albums Lavender Country (1973) and Blackberry Rose (2019). The band has a wide number of members in various cities, with Haggerty having been the only constant member.[4]
History
Early years
Haggerty was born on September 27, 1944
Self-titled album
Their
Other activities
Haggerty was also a member of the gay country music group, Doug Stevens & The Outband, from 2001 to 2003, and later released one album with the gay country music group Pearl River in 2003, Live at the Grange Hall. Along with blues musician Bobby Taylor, Haggerty formed the duo, The Landlord Tenant Act in the early-2000s, and released two albums, a
Post-breakup activity
After disbanding Lavender Country in 1976, Haggerty ran two unsuccessful campaigns for political office, once for
In 1987, Haggerty began dating Julius "J.B." Broughton, an
Revival
In 2000, the now-defunct
Haggerty recorded a story for StoryCorps about coming out to his father in 1959, which was adapted into the animated short film The Saint of Dry Creek in 2015.[17] In 2016, director Dan Taberski directed a short film titled These C*cksucking Tears which starred Haggerty and told the story of his life and career.[18]
In 2017 and again in 2019 Robert Dekkers' Post:Ballet company staged a modern ballet performance of Lavender Country, choreographed by Vanessa Thiessen and performed at the Z Space theater in San Francisco with Patrick Haggerty performing live with a new Lavender Country band featuring guitarists Dennis Fortin and Mark Newstetter, violinist Calvin K. Murasaki, Mya Byrne on bass, Paisley Fields on piano and Joyce Baker on drums.[19]
In 2019 the band released Blackberry Rose and Other Songs and Sorrows, their first full-length album of new material since 1973.[20][21]
In 2020, Haggerty was featured in a version of Trixie Mattel's reprise of "I Can't Shake the Stranger Out of You", titled "Stranger" on her album Barbara. In 2020, Pat also hosted a YouTube series called "Aunt Patty's Lavender Hour", where he interviewed several people who influenced him in his life and musical journey, the guests included his son, filmmaker Amilcar Navarro, visual artist Pat Moriarity and filmmaker Dan Taberski, among others.
In January 2022, it was announced that the band's second album, Blackberry Rose would get a full release on Don Giovanni Records on February 18, 2022. Ahead of the album, the band released a new recording of "I Can’t Shake the Stranger Out of You" with a full band arrangement.[22]
Haggerty died from complications of a stroke on October 31, 2022, at the age of 78.[2][3][23]
Critical reception
Lavender Country's self-titled first album Lavender Country was described by Pitchfork upon its reissue in 2014 as "...wobbly and amateurish, but in a playful, "come on y'all" sort of way."[24]
Blackberry Rose has been described as "full of twang, sometimes funny, often quirky, and not very tight musically (in a Grateful Dead kind of way)."[25] Pitchfork's Jason Greene describes Lavender Country's sound as unchanged from their first album to their second, saying, "Haggerty returns to recording virtually unchanged: His voice, which was unaffected and childlike in its simplicity in 1973, is unaffected and childlike in 2022."[26]
Other critics have been less positive. Kyle “Trigger” Coroneos of Saving Country Music gave the album a rating of 0/10, stating “ As an album, Blackberry Rose is awful. It’s incredibly amateurish, poorly performed, even more poorly engineered and produced, with hackneyed and rudimentary instrumentation that often can’t even stay on time with the crudely-constructed songs.” Coroneos also stated that he feels other critics have given the album undeserved praise, saying “the more you lie about your feelings on an album like Blackberry Rose, the more clout you accrue. It shows your loyalty to the cause.”[27]
Discography
- 1973 – Lavender Country
- 1999 – Lavender Country (reissue)
- 2000 – Lavender Country Revisited
- 2014 – Lavender Country (reissue released by Paradise of Bachelors)
- 2019 – Blackberry Rose and Other Songs and Sorrows
- 2022 – Blackberry Rose (reissue released by Don Giovanni Records).[28]
References
- ^ a b c d e f Dickinson, Chris (2000). "Country Undetectable: Gay Artists in Country Music". Journal of Country Music. XXI (1): 28–39. Archived from the original on April 10, 2009. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ a b "Lavender Country's Patrick Haggerty Dies at 78". Pitchfork. 31 October 2022. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
- ^ a b c Traub, Alex (November 10, 2022). "Patrick Haggerty, 'Lost Pioneer' of Gay Country Music, Dies at 78". The New York Times. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
- ^ a b "The First Openly Gay Country Singer....Was Patrick Haggerty, in 1973". Queer Music Heritage, July 10, 2013.
- ^ "Country Music" Archived 2013-07-14 at the Wayback Machine. glbtq.com, 2002.
- ^ "Never Heard of 'Em: Lavender Country". The Stranger, June 22, 2012.
- ^ Beers, Carole (June 7, 2000). "Faygele benMiriam crusaded for rights". The Seattle Times.
- NewNowNext, October 14, 2016.
- ^ "More doors open to gays today". Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 24, 2004.
- ^ a b c "40 Years Later, Patrick Haggerty’s Gay Country Album Gets a Proper Release". Seattle Weekly, March 18, 2014.
- ^ a b "Gay community resources, organizations and events" Archived 2013-07-23 at archive.today. Kitsap Sun, June 25, 2000.
- ^ Patrick Haggerty at Stonewall Society.
- ^ Paulson, Don (16 January 2009). "Gay History: Lavender Country". Seattle Gay News. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
- ^ "Strong Love: Songs of Gay Liberation 1972–1981". Gay News Network, May 8, 2012.
- ^ "Country music's gay stars: 'We're still kicking down the closet door'". The Guardian, April 10, 2014.
- Pitchfork, April 8, 2014.
- ^ A Farmer’s Powerful Advice to His Gay Son in 1959: "Don’t Sneak.". Slate, October 12, 2015.
- ^ "Gay Country Superstar Patrick Haggerty Is Still 'Cryin' Those Cocksucking Tears'". Vice, July 29, 2016.
- ^ Aimée Ts'ao, "‘Lavender Country’: Ballet inspired by first gay country album returns to SF". The Mercury News, April 22, 2019.
- ^ Carey, Leigh Ann (June 18, 2019). "Patrick Haggerty, Country Music's Gay Pioneer, Is Back With New Music After 47 Years". Slate Magazine. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
- ^ Sodomsky, Sam (2019-06-30). "Lavender Country, Gay Country Pioneer, Releases First New Album in 46 Years: Listen". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
- ^ Lynch, Joe (January 11, 2022). "Queer Country Pioneers Lavender Country Saddle Up for First Album In Nearly 50 Years". Billboard. Retrieved January 11, 2022.
- ^ "Lavender Country's Patrick Haggerty Has Died". Exclaim. October 31, 2022. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
- ^ Greene, Jason. "Lavender Country: Lavender Country". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2022-10-05.
- ^ Richard, Alan (2019-10-29). "The Sweet Second Album from Lavender Country • Country Queer". Country Queer. Retrieved 2022-10-05.
- ^ Greene, Jayson. "Lavender Country: Blackberry Rose". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2022-10-05.
- ^ Coroneos, Kyle (16 March 2022). "Album Review — Lavender Country's Blackberry Rose". Saving Country Music. Retrieved 2023-09-14.
- ^ "Lavender Country - Blackberry Rose". Don Giovanni Records. Retrieved 2022-10-05.
External links
- Lavender Country at Paradise of Bachelors
- Lavender Country at Don Giovanni Records
- Lavender Country discography at Discogs
- Lavender Country at IMDb