Tiana Major9: Meet Motown’s New Queer Superstar The Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter is seriously repping it for the Brits. Although Tiana started writing songs when she was young, it wasn’t until she attended City and Islington College to do a BTEC in Music that she truly began to discover her talent. This education allowed her to delve into all aspects of music, she tells me, through songwriting, production, sequencing, and performing. “I think that’s when songwriting really stuck, because I had to write a lot of songs,” she adds. “I really liked it. I felt like I found my confidence in college when I was writing songs.”
Untangling Queer Country’s Many Connections to Country Music Taken as a whole, queer country doesn’t feel monolithic. It has musical range, but its politics can sometimes be elusive. As well, queer country isn’t immune to the kind of retro-leaning genrification that can limit the reach of many Americana artists.
Claud’s Debut Album Is A Reminder That You’re Worthy of Love 21-year old LA-based Claud Mintz is on the way to becoming the most talked-about musician of 2021. After releasing music for the past two years, it’s all culminating in the release of their debut album Super Monster. Made up of 13 gorgeous tracks exploring young love, desire and friendships, the album covers the whole rollercoaster of relationship-y things that we experience as we’re growing up.
Amy Ray (Indigo Girls) New Interview! "Where I live, it’s a big deal to come out. Kids are still committing suicide because their parents throw them out of the house because they’re gay. We’ve progressed in circles of entitlement, but we’re still fighting so many battles, you know?" When you look at the current slate of queer country artists, you might like what you see. Out artists like Amythyst Kiah, Orville Peck, Justin Hiltner, Brandi Carlile, Brittany Howard, and Mercy Bell have garnered praise from the media and attracted large audiences, with or without institutional support. There is still much work to be done, but for those of us who grew up during Chely Wright’s closeted “Single White Female” era, queer country’s current roster is a beautiful sight. Of course, none of the aforementioned artists’ success would be possible without the hard work done by those who came before them. One particularly hard working group is the Indigo Girls.
Joy Oladokun's Star Is On The Rise As a first-generation, Black, queer folk artist, the Arizona native pulls from life experiences and emotions to create music that is powerfully honest and relatable. Over the last few years, Joy has gained fans through features on SoFar Sounds, NPR, NBC‘s This Is Us and The L Word. Most recently, Joy appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. The singer-songwriter and all-around musician from Arizona now resides in Nashville, Tennessee.
WATCH
"Wish You Were Here" by Joy Oladokun (featuring Jensen McRae)
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