{"product_id":"lavender-country-lavender-country-cd","title":"Lavender Country - Lavender Country CD","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWidely 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.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt 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\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"bcTruncateMore\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eas much as any standard country and western forebears, rendering the biting poetry in an even more otherworldly and timeless light.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe 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.)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 472px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=2511806226\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/lavendercountry.bandcamp.com\/album\/lavender-country\"\u003eLavender Country by Lavender Country\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Direct","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44327363215542,"sku":null,"price":27.95,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/9119\/8390\/files\/a1831482086_10.jpg?v=1760151100","url":"https:\/\/repressedrecords.com\/products\/lavender-country-lavender-country-cd","provider":"Repressed Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}