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Rachel Cholst

QUEER COUNTRY: Music is Political

QUEER COUNTRY: Music is Political

Music is political. I don’t mean the content – though this historical moment is certainly inspiring its share of protest music. I’m referring instead to the act of creating and making it – commodified by our entertainment industry, and only possible to create and distribute if an artist’s material

ALBUM REVIEW: Mariel Buckley Guides Us on The 'Strange Trip Ahead'

ALBUM REVIEW: Mariel Buckley Guides Us on The 'Strange Trip Ahead'

We all thought we’d be further along by now. When I first heard Mariel Buckley’s 2018 album Driving in the Dark, I was captured by its optimism in the face of a murky future. In 2025, Buckley’s latest album, Strange Trip Ahead embraces that murk – kicking and

QUEER COUNTRY: Will You Let Queer Country Be Outlawed?

QUEER COUNTRY: Will You Let Queer Country Be Outlawed?

“Outlaw country” often evokes a certain rough-and-tumble (cis white) dude — The kind of person who doesn’t take any shit and isn’t interested in conforming to Music Row’s ideals of what it means to “be country.” Although Music City indicated its rejection of the first Trump administration’s

QUEER COUNTRY: Riding Towards Utopia

QUEER COUNTRY: Riding Towards Utopia

ALBUM REVIEW: Anna Tivel Explores Her Final Frontier on 'Animal Poem'

ALBUM REVIEW: Anna Tivel Explores Her Final Frontier on 'Animal Poem'

Anna Tivel is a consummate storyteller whose keen eye and compassionate heart have dazzled us with stories of floating balloons; an elderly queer couple whose momentoes of their quiet defiance are destroyed in a house fire; a troubled young man who is mistaken as a suspect in a mass shooting;

QUEER COUNTRY: Paisley Fields' Limp Wristed Country Revolution

QUEER COUNTRY: Paisley Fields' Limp Wristed Country Revolution

Last time around, I wrote about Karen Pittelman setting the stage for a generation of LGBTQIA+ artists in country and roots music. Paisley Fields is one of the artists from that Queer Country Monthly series whose path is in step with the scene’s general expansion and broader acceptance. This

ALBUM REVIEW: Ben Nichols Camps Outside of Himself on 'In The Heart of the Mountain'

ALBUM REVIEW: Ben Nichols Camps Outside of Himself on 'In The Heart of the Mountain'

Ben Nichols has been an underrated anchor of Americana music since before the genre became overly simplified and radio-friendly under that moniker. His Southern punk roots have infused Lucero’s gritty anthems for a quarter-century, and his new solo album In The Heart of the Mountain continues in the band’