It’s always a blast to hear what Cindy Emch of Secret Emchy Society is up to. The Bay Area-based queer country singer helped create the queer country news site Country Queer; she’s helmed the West Coast Gay Ole Oprey for years now; and she has her own show on Gimme Country (link below.) Her previous band, Oakland Wine Drinkers Union, was one of the very first bands I wrote up on Adobe & Teardrops; we chatted about it a year ago in Episode 119 of the podcast, even! So when I saw that she was curating a queer country festival for the National Queer Arts showcase, I knew it was going to be fantastic, and would feature a lot of Adobe & Teardrops mainstays.
The show features a diverse collective of queer // bipoc country musicians who prove that Americana and roots music belong to all of us. Showcasing Lavender Country, the first out gay country band (1973), Amythyst Kiah, the award-winning singer songwriter from the all-women-of-color supergroup Our Native Daughters, out transwoman folk-punker Shawna Virago, BIPOC country punk musician Delila Black (whom I just interviewed), the First Lady of Queer Country herself, Secret Emchy Society, and the legendary JBird McLaughlin, for a night of inclusive and intersectional damn good country music.
The National Queer Arts Festival is presented by the Queer Cultural Center, a queer BIPOC founded arts organization. queerculturalcenter.org
The National Queer Arts Festival is an annual multidisciplinary Festival held May through July throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Each year they commission over twenty performances, visual arts exhibitions, and interdisciplinary showcases and in the process of producing work we support hundreds of artists, technical and production crews.
The Future is Queer this Saturday, July 12th — you can switch off between it and the Queerfolk Fest on the same day out of Boston! Some things about All of This have been pretty cool, actually!
Cindy told us about her musical influences, but I love how generously she talked up many of her fellow performers on this bill.
Who are some of your musical influences?
There are so many musicians and poets who have influenced me musically. Leonard Cohen, Johnette Napolitano, Tom Waits, were some of my absolute touchstones when I first started learning music. But more recently, when I was recording my album Stars Fall Shooting Into Twangsville up in Canada my producer Tolan McNeil asked me if I had ever heard Lavender Country. When I hadn’t he followed up with a very enthusiastic and bourbon fueled monologue of how amazing Lavender Country was and how I just had to listen to them. As soon as I did I was floored. That perfect old school / Hank Williams-style country sound with powerful and hilarious queer super lefty lyrics. I was all over it. Plus, as the world’s first out gay country band (1973) who are still performing, you have to give it up for Patrick Haggerty and the crew. I’m just so honored that I’ve gotten to share the stage with him on tours in the past, and online at the National Queer Arts Fest show this June (6/12 – 5p PT) – he really is a living legend.
Have you ever been star-struck when playing with a musician?
It’s funny because the first musician I was starstruck to play with was someone I knew, Shawna Virago. She and I had crossed paths a few times in San Francisco through various art / performance events, but didn’t really “know” each other. A friend put together a showcase for the three of us to do a queer country / Americana night at a local cafe and I was just stunned to be included. Since we’ve done a cross-country tour and try to play together whenever we can. She is one of my absolute favorite songwriters in the world and I’m just slayed everytime I hear her perform. LOL maybe that’s why I keep asking her to be a part of shows like The Future is Queer Country – I just want the world to hear these amazing songs like I’ve gotten to.
How are you using your platform to support marginalized people?
I have a few different ways I’m trying to support. I always play a diverse range of folks on my Gimme Country radio show and work hard to ensure that a diverse, progressive, and intersectional line up of music is played and showcased. I have done things in the past like offered free merch or album downloads to folks who had donated $5+ to a BIPOC or LGBTQ2+ group. And when I can control the makeup of a show – like the upcoming The Future is Queer Country show – I ensure that the spotlight shines on as wide a range of folks as possible. Representation matters, being seen, and being able to tell / sing your own stories matters. If I can help facilitate that happening – you bet your ass I will.
What 5 albums are you going to make your kid listen to and why?
Well, kids in my sphere tend to belong to my pals – but if I could sit them down for a musical moment, here’s at least the beginning of what I would throw on the turntable:
Louis Jordan – Let the Good Times Roll
The absolute king of jump blues, Louis Jordan is an American treasure. No one can make a room jump up and dance like he can. Even just mentioning his name now has three different favorite Louis Jordan songs running through my brain [for the record: “Beans and Cornbread,” “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens,” and “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby”]
Sundown Songs – Like a Jazz Band in Nashville
Because I want them to hear how simple acoustic instruments can be transcendent in the hands of a good storyteller. It’s also a really cool example of how one moment in a person’s musical career can spawn so much. Every member of this band in the 10 years following has released music to critical acclaim. Sam Doores – solo and with the DesLondes. Pat Reedy moved to Nashville and is moving and shaking there. Kiki Cavazos just put out her solo album which will steal your soul and make it sing. And then there’s Alynda Lee Segarra who has gone on to epic success with her solo project Hurray for the Riff Raff.
Carolina Chocolate Drops – Genuine Negro Jig
The album came out when I was in a thick fugue state of Shovels and Rope / Devil Makes Three album listening and playing lots and lots and lots of shows with banjo players. So when I first heard their take on “Hit Em Up Style” – I was mesmerized. I loved the r&b / pop version of that song so much and here was this bad ass kickin’ and super old timey take on it that sounded even more tough girl than the original. Blown away. And so then I just dug into their whole catalog and fell in love. While I would tell any kid to LISTEN TO IT ALL – this album has a special spot in my heart. Modern musicians reviving old timey songs and remaking modern pop culture through that lens… amazing.
Tom Waits – Bone Machine
I first heard this album on cassette, on repeat driving from Lansing, MI to New Orleans for the first time. It shifted something primal in my musical gut and opened up a new part of my brain for creative experimentation and adventure – I could only wish such a holy moment for my kid.
Johnny Cash – Live at Folsom Prison
The tension, power, and energy of this live album just can’t be beat. You have Johnny Cash at the top of his game absolutely vibrating off the energy of the prison crowd. Some of the most iconic songs in Country Music are on this record and Cash just kicks em out and blows the roof off the joint. I would play this for a kid in my life so they know just how absolutely badass classic country music was.
Honorable Mentions: Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, Leonard Cohen – Songs from a Room, Hole – Live Through This, Loretta Lynn – Van Lear Rose, Prince – Sign of the Times, Rolling Stones – Aftermath, Carolyn Mark – Pros and Cons of Collaboration, Buck Owens – I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail, Waylon, George, Mingus, The Knitters, and and and… and dang this doesn’t even really get me started. So clearly I would need to create some months-long musical residency for these kids.
Is there a professional “bucket list” item you would love to check off?
Yes! I would love to play a show with Amythyst Kiah in person! We’ve been talking about this queer country showcase we’re playing on June 12 since pre-pandemic / 2020 and dang, I am so glad we’re sharing a stage – even if it’s virtual – but someday we’ll get to be in the same actual theater and share some songs and jokes and time and that will be awesome. I really think she is one of the most real, heartfelt, and just crucially powerful performers out there working today and to share those stage vibes – as two queer country musicians tearing it up in our own unique ways – that would be epic AF. Plus her voice. Damn.
The Future is…Queer Country is this Saturday, January 12th from 5 – 7 PT.