Lavender Country

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Lavender Country
Origin Seattle, Washington, USA
Genres Country
Years active 1972-1976, 2000
Labels Gay Community Social Services of Seattle
Past members Patrick Haggerty
Michael Carr
Eve Morris
Robert Hammerstrom

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 consisted of lead singer and guitarist Patrick Haggerty, keyboardist Michael Carr, singer and fiddler Eve Morris and guitarist Robert Hammerstrom (the only heterosexual member).[2]

Haggerty was born on September 27, 1944[1] and raised on a dairy farm near Port Angeles, Washington.[3] After college he joined the Peace Corps, but was discharged in 1966 for being gay.[1] He later became an artist and an activist with the local chapter of the Gay Liberation Front after moving to Seattle to pursue graduate studies at the University of Washington.[1]

The 1973 album was funded and released by Gay Community Social Services of Seattle,[4] with funding and production assistance from activist Faygele Ben-Miriam.[5] The band performed at the first Seattle Pride event in 1974,[6] and performed at numerous pride and other LGBT events throughout Washington, Oregon and California[2] until their dissolution in 1976.[1]

In 2000, the Journal of Country Music published an article on gay country musicians, focusing in large part on Haggerty and Lavender Country.[1] As a result of the renewed attention, the album was rereleased on CD in December 1999, and in 2000 the band released a five-song EP, Lavender Country Revisited, which featured three rerecordings of songs from the original album and two new songs.[7] The band reunited briefly in 2000, performing the album in its entirety at Seattle's Broadway Performance Hall in January 2000,[8] and at that year's Seattle Pride.[7] In addition, the album was archived at the Country Music Hall of Fame by former Journal of Country Music editor Chris Dickinson.[9]

Their song "Cryin' These Cocksucking Tears" was included in the 2012 compilation album Strong Love: Songs of Gay Liberation 1972-1981.[10]

Discography

  • 1973 - Lavender Country (Tracks: "Come Out Singin'", "Gypsy John", "Waltzing Will Trilogy", "Georgie Pie", "Cryin' These Cocksucking Tears", "Back in the Closet Again", "I Can't Shake the Stranger Out of You", "To a Woman", "Straight White Patterns", "Lavender Country".)
  • 1999 - Lavender Country (reissue)
  • 2000 - Lavender Country Revisited (Tracks: "Come Out Singing", "Gay Bar Blues", "Clara Fraser vs. Seattle City Light", "Lavender Country", "I Can't Shake the Stranger Out of You".)

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Dickinson, Chris (2000). "Country Undetectable: Gay Artists in Country Music". Journal of Country Music XXI (1): 28–39. Retrieved 4 August 2009. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "The First Openly Gay Country Singer....Was Patrick Haggerty, in 1973". Queer Music Heritage, July 10, 2013.
  3. ↑ "Country Music". glbtq.com, 2002.
  4. ↑ "Never Heard of 'Em: Lavender Country". The Stranger, June 22, 2012.
  5. ↑ Carole Beers (June 7, 2000). "Faygele benMiriam crusaded for rights". The Seattle Times. 
  6. ↑ "More doors open to gays today". Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 24, 2004.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Gay community resources, organizations and events". Kitsap Sun, June 25, 2000.
  8. ↑ Patrick Haggerty at Stonewall Society.
  9. ↑ Paulson, Don (16 January 2009). "Gay History: Lavender Country". Seattle Gay News. Retrieved 4 August 2009. 
  10. ↑ "Strong Love: Songs of Gay Liberation 1972-1981". Gay News Network, May 8, 2012.
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