NASHVILLE PRIDE: A JOYOUS RESISTANCE

His signature fringed veil flowing with each step, Orville Peck sashays onstage to the roar of a crowd. This isn’t Stagecoach, a Pride party or even one of the progressive clubs Peck sells out, however; this is the Hollywood Bowl on the second and final night of “Long Story Short,” Willie Nelson’s 90th birthday concert, featuring an all-star lineup including George Strait, Miranda Lambert, Snoop Dogg, Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell and Keith Richards, among others.

Written in 1981 by Ned Sublette, “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other” was penned after the songwriter saw men dressed in chaps at a gay bar in Manhattan’s West Village. In 2006, Nelson recorded the song and released it on iTunes in part to show solidarity for his good friend and long-time tour manager, David Anderson, who had recently come out. Nelson debuted the track on the Valentine’s Day broadcast of The Howard Stern Show, and the song subsequently became his highest-charting single since “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before,” his 1984 duet with Julio Iglesias, which peaked at #5.

Shortly after the song’s release, Anderson spoke to The Dallas Morning News, saying, “This song obviously has special meaning to me in more ways than one. I want people to know more than anything—gay, straight, whatever—just how cool Willie is and his way of thinking, his tolerance, everything about him.” Public sentiment regarding the song’s subject matter elicited little more than a “That’s just Willie” reaction from folks. Like fellow country-music icon Dolly Parton, Nelson believes in justice and equality for all.

Peck’s exuberant entrance set the tone for the evening, and his performance of “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other”—complete with a knee-bending two-step across the stage—was more than just a celebration of Nelson’s music, life and fame; it was a toast to living the life you want in a world where tolerance is melting.

It felt coy when Kacey Musgraves innocently sang, “Kiss lots of boys, or kiss lots of girls if that’s something you’re into,” on her Grammy-winning “Follow Your Arrow,” written with Shane McAnally and Brandy Clark. But it also seemingly signaled a thawing of the tacit tolerance of “not-so-open secrets” on Music Row, which allowed people to live their lives with only the occasional closeted snicker from the true rednecks in the business.

Tennessee’s Senate Bill 3 (more commonly known as the “anti-drag” bill) seeks to restrict “adult cabaret performances” in public or in the presence of children. Considering Nashville’s Hume-Fogg High School once sat opposite one of the city’s most prominent strip clubs, the political move is hard to ignore as anything other than a targeted attack on the state’s queer community. The message legislation is sending is being telegraphed loud and clear. Now, Nashville—once a city with America’s second-highest population of gay people per capita—has become a place where folks like veteran ABC News Radio entertainment reporter and Apple Music Pride Radio host Hunter Kelly no longer want to live.

Following the recent Valentine’s Day “Have a Heart” rally and march in Nashville, Kelly, along with outspoken singer-songwriter Maren Morris and her husband, songwriter/artist Ryan Hurd, spent the day in the Senate Chamber of Tennessee’s Capitol building. In an interview with Variety, Kelly recalled, “We went into the hearing room for the drag felony bill, and we were all there in solidarity, but it was just really clear that there was no stopping these bills, no matter what, because ultimately this is the GOP’s strategy going into 2024, and the super-majority in the legislature here in Tennessee and our governor are in lockstep with this.”

So Kelly and 2023 Americana Artist of the Year nominee and 2022 Americana Album of the Year winner Allison Russell did something even more radical. They teamed to produce “Love Rising,” a massive sellout benefit concert at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. With help from LiveNation/LiveWoman chief Ali Harnell, Kelly and Russel reached beyond the expected country and Americana artists—securing the services of Maren Morris, Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Sheryl Crow, Hozier, Yola, Brothers Osborne, Jason Isbell, Amanda Shires and Brittany Howard, as well as artists from the queer community including Adeem the Artist, Julien Baker, Joy Oladokun, Jake Wesley Rogers and Mya Byrne.

Proceeds from the “celebration of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” went to the Tennessee Equality Project, Inclusion Tennessee, Out Memphis and the Tennessee Pride Chamber. More than just a joyous night of music, consciousness- and fund-raising, “Love Rising” was an act of defiance to the rising intolerance in a city that prided itself on churches outnumbering liquor stores. And we've got a lot of liquor stores. These laws aren’t just scene-busters; they’re designed to undo all the progress that’s been made for LGBTQ+ rights.

Holy hallelujah, Marsha Blackburn!

When Ashley McBryde released her John Osborne-produced Ashley McBryde Presents Lindeville, she booked the Ryman Auditorium for two sold-out nights to recreate the record in its small-town, white-trash entirety—featuring guests Caylee Hammack (first night), Lainey Wilson (second night), Pillbox Patti, TJ Osborne, Aaron Ratiere, Connie Harrington, Benjy Davis, Shelly Fairchild and Charlie Worsham.

Beyond the clever vignettes, the reality-scraping songs and thick, sweet harmonies, one of the night’s tour de force moments came when a cavalcade of drag queens flooded the aisles of “the mother church of country music” during the climax of “Gospel Night at the Strip Club” for a chorus of “Hallelujah” joining the cast of strippers, losers, bartenders and lost souls with a chorus so sanctified it could seemingly save every lobbyist, politician and celebrity preacher in Music City. If there was ever a moment to reckon with your faith, that was it—because Jesus loves everyone exactly where they are.

Whatever your faltering, your blind spot, your failings, God’s got you—even when you may not have yourself on your best foot. McBryde didn’t just bring that home; she created a tableau where the beauty of being present in whatever state we’re in was shown as a pathway of grace and acceptance on the way to something more. The joyous freedom and exuberance brought forth in the performance those drag queens delivered brought the concertgoers to their feet.

Under these new statutes, even a show like McBryde’s would be liable to review. Fornication, marijuana, pills, booze, infidelity and kids running wild were all part of the story’s fabric, never mind a bunch of men dressed more glamazonian than many of the women in the audience.

Kelly also teamed with Black Opry to stage “We Will Always Be: A Benefit for Inclusion Tennessee,” a smaller event at City Winery. A dynamic night of love and music, it focused on bringing LGBTQ+ performers and allies together. Celebrity stylist Rique! (who famously styled Rosanne Cash’s eggplant punk hair and is still Emmylou Harris’ first call) once famously quipped, “You can’t get rid of us! Who’s gonna cut your hair?” Looking at a lineup that included Grammy- and Americana-winning songwriting legend Mary Gauthier, Kaitlin Butts, Katie Pruitt, Lilly Hiatt, She Returns From War, The Shindellas and multi-genre, multi-instrumental, utterly fluid Aaron Lee Tasjan, as well as a Black Opry writers’ round of Autumn Nicholas, Jett Holden, Carmen Dianne, Josey and Ally Free, Hunter Kelly’s personally invited Chris Housman, Izzy Heltai, Brady Riley, Harper Grae and Brody Ray, plus a retinue of drag queens, it was obvious that there’s so much more than hairstyling to this community.

Yes, it’s fabulous, glittering, glorious. However, as songs and artists show us, there’s a true heart in each of these people that beats a little freer and harder because of acceptance of self. Liberation really is justice for all.

When T.J. Osborne came out in TIME, people waited to see if the streets would buckle, or if the hardcore fans of the Brothers’ hard-rocking approach to country would bail. So far, the Brothers Osborne are still out there playing hard and selling beer.

Ty Herndon was poised for superstardom when his first single, “Living in a Moment,” went to #1. Everything crashed down around him when he was arrested in a Dallas park for soliciting and, in a George Michael moment, it was over. However, Herndon—who was told to “shut up” by his label head and subjected to mass scrutiny and shaming—hasn’t faded away. He’s spent the last two-plus decades creating space and moments where the old-guard country fans can see he’s just as loveable as he was when they didn’t know his sexuality.

On 6/7, on the brink of CMA Music Fest, down at the Gaylord Entertainment-owned Wild Horse Saloon, Herndon revives his GLAAD-benefiting “Concert for Love & Acceptance.” For the first in-person staging of his event since COVID, Herndon drafted “Girl in a Country Song” breakouts and squeaky-clean girls next door Maddie & Tae—who’ve grown up and into married life with adult #1s like “Die From a Broken Heart”—to share the night with CMA Female Vocalist, Opry member Pam Tillis and Terry Clark, songwriter Desmond Child, “One Voice” singer and former child star Billy Gilman and more.

When the show was announced, Herndon explained, “With LGBTQ youth and families under attack here in Tennessee and across the country, it’s more important than ever that Nashville come together to send a strong message to them that they are loved just the way they are. Treating each other with kindness, dignity, respect and equality under the law should never be a political issue. We are all human, and we all deserve to be loved and accepted.”

Amen.

For years, Dolly Parton’s been telling a story about entering and losing a Dolly Parton-impersonator contest. She laughs when she tells it. With her love of rhinestones, high heels and even higher hair, you know Dolly’s probably more delighted by drag queens paying homage to her “It takes a lot of money to look this cheap” aesthetic than winning that contest would have made her.

Reba, Wynonna and Shania—all single-name icons—have been high cotton for female impersonators getting their swerve on since the ’90s, when Nashville boasted an all-country and always-packed drag show. If you outlaw drag shows, how long until they come for the muses themselves? And what’s wrong with a little eyeliner and shadow among friends? After all, Harry Styles was downright verklempt when he brought Twain out onstage with him at Coachella in 2022.

Which is also part of it: the allyship. When Miranda Lambert, the 2022 ACM Entertainer of the Year, got the call to record a song for Queer Eye, the answer was the brilliant “Y’all Means All.” No hesitation, no second guessing. The “Gunpowder & Lead” singer believes in people first, respect second and loving who makes you happy most of all.

The Academy of Country Music echoes Lambert’s heart, and this year, they put their marketing where ACM leader Damon Whiteside and his board’s convictions are. They tapped Lambert and Twain for old-school grounding but also leaned into younger artists Ingrid Andress, Lainey Wilson and BRELAND, plus LGBTQIA+ breakouts Joy Oladokun, Peck, drag queen-country artist Trixie Mattel and the very fluid Brittany Broski to give their ACM Awards promos a spark and a sparkle.

In a world of fear and bullying, where stridency and polarization drive wedges between individuals as well as groups, leave it to Nashville’s creative community to resist with joy. Yes, they show up, march, sit in, petition and do the civic protocols. But then they have a secret weapon: music. And they’re not afraid to use it.

L-r: Willie Nelson; Orville Peck at “Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90” at the Hollywood Bowl
Ashley McBryde Presents Lindeville at the Ryman Auditorium
Top: Ty Herndon; bottom: Maren Morris with Trixie Mattel at the GLAAD Awards