A Quantum Conversation with Lavender Country
Chapbook, Jason Triefenbach, 32 pgs, Standard Practice
CoCreative,tinyurl.com/lavendercountryzine, $10
In 1973, Lavender Country released a self-titled record that is widely recognized as the first gay-themed country music album. They’re still active nearly 50 years later, and recently put out thelong-overdue follow-up to that debut.The band’s founder, Patrick Haggerty, is interviewed here by multidisciplinary artist Jason Triefenbach, though this meeting comes across more like an extended ramble from Haggerty than a proper interview; it’s rare that Triefenbach chimes in with more than “MmHmm,”“Wow!” or “Fantastic!” Fortunately, Haggerty has no qualms about spilling his guts withoutbeing prompted.Haggerty “didn’t have any problem being a sissy kid in 1955 in Port Angeles Washington… Why? What for? My father loved me,” he says. “My father was proud of me.” Haggerty dives deeplyinto his relationship with his father (dubbed “Saint Charles of the Sissies”), praising his support,protection and encouragement at a time when it was unthinkable for a Catholic farmer to doanything of the sort. Without that care, says Haggerty, Lavender Country would have neverexisted. Haggerty and Triefenbach move on to discuss capitalism, a Lavender Country ballet (it actually happened), gender identity and the impact of COVID-19 on the band (Haggerty nearly called itquits but the day was saved by a tech-savvy 19-year-old band member). It’s the image Haggertypaints of his father, though, that lingers in memory. Giventhe room he had to flourish in hisyouth, “it’s not surprising,” he says, “that I wrote the world’s first gay country album. It’sactually kind of predictable, right?”