Chely Wright may be the first major openly gay untry mic star, but she's hardly the first one to the party
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HEAR JT HILTNER’S GAY BLUEGRASS AT
Joe Troop, the ontman of Che Apalache, is challengg long-held norms and brgg an Amerin artform; he's an openly gay bluegrass fiddler and prott song wrer, and as such is one of the very few micians wh that genre to e out and stay out. * gay bluegrass *
Check out our #DotGayQAndA to learn more about how Jt is makg wav as an OUT mician the folk, bluegrass, and roots mic scene. As soon as I found out that domas were an optn, I knew I need to grab Ever sce I moved to Nashville ten years ago, I have (somewhat jokgly) stated over and over that my brand is "sad, gay banjo songs.
" really munit who I am, what I love, and what I prrize my mic-makg and art: gay banjos!!
What would you say to enurage listeners of ntemporary mic to take a chance on your "sad, gay banjo songs? How has your gay/queer inty fluenced your mic and your experience the mic dtry?
COUNTRY MIC'S (NOT SO SECRET) GAY HISTORY
Joe Troop, the ontman of Che Apalache, is challengg long-held norms and brgg an Amerin artform; he's an openly gay bluegrass fiddler and prott song wrer, and as such is one of the very…. Troop, who grew up the foothills of North Carola, is an openly gay bluegrass fiddler and prott song wrer, and is one of the very few micians wh that genre to e out and stay out.
Billboard sat down wh Troop to discs Rearrange My Heart, what was like growg up gay 1990s North Carola and what the future may hold for queers bluegrass. I realized then that this thg, what I’d eventually realize was my gayns, was somethg I was gog to have to migate, socially, for the rt of my life.
There was lerally one gay club town, lled The Odyssey. AIDS equaled gay, and gay equaled AIDS. That I would not even know what ‘gay’ was.