The Highwomen Perform 'Gay Country Song' Live Debut [Watch]

Contents:

• THE HIGHWOMEN PERFORM ‘GAY COUNTRY SONG’ TLED ‘IF SHE EVER LEAV ME’ LIVE DEBUT [WATCH]
• THE HIGHWOMEN DEBUT A “GAY COUNTRY SONG” WH JASON ISBELL AND IT’S REALLY DAMN GOOD
• THE HIGHWOMEN DEBUT ‘GAY COUNTRY SONG’ ‘IF SHE EVER LEAV ME’ AT 2019 NEWPORT FOLK FTIVAL [WATCH]

THE HIGHWOMEN PERFORM ‘GAY COUNTRY SONG’ TLED ‘IF SHE EVER LEAV ME’ LIVE DEBUT [WATCH]

Carlile is openly gay and married to a woman real life. "Inially I thought this song would be one of heterosexual untry love, " Isbell relled, until " occurred to me that maybe, jt maybe, Brandi Carlile would sg this song, and uld be a gay untry song. Inially I thought this song would be one of heterosexual untry love…And occurred to me that maybe, jt maybe, Brandi Carlile will sg this song and n be a gay untry song.

Isbell told Rollg Stone that he me up wh the ia of “If She Ever Leav Me” while exercisg one morng — and he realized that if Carlile sang the tune they uld have a sgular “gay untry song” moment. Ty Herndon me out as gay 2014, havg prevly earned a handful of No.

THE HIGHWOMEN DEBUT A “GAY COUNTRY SONG” WH JASON ISBELL AND IT’S REALLY DAMN GOOD

” That same year, Billy Gilman (who found succs untry mic as a child wh songs cludg “One Voice”) also me out publicly as gay. Sce then, the untry mic dtry has slowly seen more openly gay artists and songwrers fd succs. In the 2000s and 2010s, songwrers Shane McAnally and Brandy Clark, who are both openly gay, began havg succs as wrers.

“We Shall Be Free” — and s celebry-filled mic vio — took aim at a number of social issu, cludg homophobia, eedom of relign, world hunger and racism. Includ on the group Lavenr Country’s groundbreakg, gay-themed, eponymo 1973 album, this song is a mil ray of sunshe, as the sger basks the happs of a new relatnship. Brothers Osborne’s TJ Osborne me out as gay an terview wh TIME 2021, and soon, the siblg duo released this song, crafted as a song to TJ’s younger self, filled wh enuragement and wisdom.

THE HIGHWOMEN DEBUT ‘GAY COUNTRY SONG’ ‘IF SHE EVER LEAV ME’ AT 2019 NEWPORT FOLK FTIVAL [WATCH]

Some historilly-md folks were miffed when The Highwomen announced that this was the “first gay untry song.

But to be fair to Brandi Carlile, who sgs , and songwrers Amanda Shir, Jason Isbell, and Chris Tompks, who wrote , ’s a sgular tone to put out an unequivolly gay untry song that’s this mastream and has such dtry support. It was the first “gay” untry song I ever heard, and ma me so eakg happy to hear . “Country Rad” by the Indigo Girls is the ttament of gay experienc when a song like “If She Ever Leav Me” was never even a possibily.

Songs like the, which lament the lonels of beg a “Gay kid a small town / Who lov untry rad, ” make me so grateful and happy for the next generatn, for people like my ltle sister, who will get to grow up a world that has multiple mastream gay songs untry and other genr. “And I started gog, ‘Gay untry song! Gay untry song!