We’re proud to announce PoB-12, our reissue of the S/T 1973 LP by Lavender Country, regarded as the first openly gay country music record. Pre-order this historic album below, or here. Read on for more details.

Tracklist:

A1. “Come Out Singing” 4:17
A2. “Gypsy John” 4:08
A3. “Waltzing Will Trilogy” 5:43
A4. “Georgie Pie” 3:00
A5. “Cryin’ These Cocksucking Tears” 3:12
B1. “Back in the Closet Again” 3:33
B2. “I Can’t Shake the Stranger Out of You” 2:40
B3. “To a Woman” 2:54
B4. “Straight White Patterns” 4:21
B5. “Lavender Country” 3:53

 

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/22285766?secret_token=s-bhuvZ” params=”color=999999&auto_play=false&font=Georgia&player_type=tiny” width=”100%” height=”18″ iframe=”false” /]

$10.00 – $34.00

Pre-Order Details

We are now accepting pre-orders for this title. Pre-orders will ship at least ten days in advance of the official March 25 release date. All pre-orders include a link to a free, immediate MP3 download of the song “Cryin’ These Cocksucking Tears,” which Pitchfork is kindly streaming here. Pitchfork’s Jayson Greene writes of Haggerty that “he is a steelier person than you or I. He [wrote] a waltz called “Cryin’ These Cocksucking Tears” because he’s funnier than you or I. And he loaded the song, and the album, with exquisitely personal and painful lyrics that raged against the hypocrisies, large and small that defined his life.”

Please visit our Bandcamp page for digital-only pre-orders.

To celebrate the release of Lavender Country, all of our historical reissues are on sale until March 25. While supplies last, visit our Shop to purchase copies of these critically acclaimed releases for 15% off or more.

Album Info

Widely recognized as the first openly gay country music album—and cited as such even by Nashville institutions like the Country Music Hall of Fame and CMT—the landmark self-titled 1973 LP by Lavender Country stands as nothing less than an artifact of courage, a sonic political protest document of enormous power, clarity, and grace.

At once a scathing indictment of the injustices perpetrated on the homosexual community, a proud proclamation of gay identity, and a love letter of bracing intimacy and eroticism, the album radically appropriates the signifiers of the conservative country genre, queering its heteronormative vocabulary into a deeply personal language. Songwriter, singer, and guitarist Patrick Haggerty, a fearless first-generation gay liberation activist and artist, seasons his songs with Yippie deviousness; in the manner of the Cockettes, the laughs both sharpen and sweeten the impact. To our ears the inimitable aesthetics and glimpses of cockeyed humor recall some ethereal psych-folk nexus of the Flatlanders and the Holy Modal Rounders as much as any standard country and western forebears, rendering the biting poetry in an even more otherworldly and timeless light.

The record reflects Haggerty’s experiences: his upbringing on a tenant dairy farm in rural Washington, on the Canadian border; his dismissal from the Peace Corps on the spurious grounds of his sexuality; and his righteous struggles as an outraged young gay man navigating the Pacific Northwest in the immediate aftermath of Stonewall. He designed Lavender Country as a vehicle for what he deems “The Information”: valid cultural communications intended to resonate with those unable to access similar resources. (Playing “Cryin’ These Cocksucking Tears,” one of the indisputably great country song titles ever, cost a brave Seattle DJ her FCC license.)

This deluxe reissue includes includes a 32pp chapbook with an oral history by Haggerty, never before published color photos, a download code (vinyl version only), and full lyrics to these ten moving songs of gay liberation.

  • The first openly gay country album
  • First-ever vinyl reissue of this countercultural classic
  • Includes 32 pp. chapbook with an oral history by Patrick Haggerty, curatorial essays by PoB and Jeremy Cargill, and never published color photos
  • Available on 150g virgin vinyl, in a deluxe limited edition, as well as on CD and digital formats
  • Vinyl edition includes digital download coupon
  • When purchased from our website or iTunes, digital edition includes digital liner notes chapbook

Lavender Country Release Party

LIVE LAVENDER: You are all cordially invited to come see Lavender Country at The Church on York in Los Angeles on March 16, at the official record release party. This will be the first public performance of these songs in almost 15 years. Gun Outfit and White Fence open. Purchase tickets here.

This show will close out our PoB Ides of March Weekender. Steve Gunn and Chris Forsyth, both with full bands, will also be playing the Church on March 14, and M.C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger will perform with members of Magnolia Electric Co. and Songs: Ohia as part of the Songs: Molina tribute on March 15.