Dearest cowpeople, I know we could all use a little extra music and queer country love right now. So if you can, come on over to Branded Saloon this Saturday night because we’ve got a really special Queer Country Quarterly for you.

First of all, Sam Gleaves is magic. He and his super-talented sweetie Tyler Hughes are coming to play for us as a duo all the way from Kentucky. Sam made my whole band cry with his amazingness when we played together this spring on our tour, and fine, maybe it’s not that hard to make me cry, but you know that Tami and Elana are tough cookies. And then, MY GAY BANJO! I don’t have to tell you that My Gay Banjo is the best because I know you already know. Plus, our Elana Redfield will be doing a special opening solo set. And the Sorrows not only have more new sad songs to play for you, but after this we will be heading into the studio to record our second album, so it’s your last chance to see us for a while.

Amythyst Kiah will be here all the way from Johnson City, TN, and trust me, you will be kicking yourself if you miss your chance to see her. We played a show with her on the Gay Ole Opry tour this spring and she is about to break BIG. Seriously, listen to this song. Plus, we’ll also have AJ Lewis & Friends! We couldn’t let Professor Banjo come home for the summer without demanding he play his special mix of old timey banjo songs, reflections on the queer genealogies of old time music, and covers from the 1990s. And your faithful host Karen & the Sorrows can’t wait to sing some brand new songs for you!

Hello friends! We’ve got a special show coming up this Friday, August 12th, at Dixon Place. We’ll be playing at 10pm as part of the Folking-Awesome Queer Alt-Folk & Americana Fest. Elana and I will be doing a stripped-down duo set and we’ve got lots of new songs we can’t wait to sing for you!

When: Friday, August 12th, 10pm
Where: Dixon Place, 161 Chrystie St bet Delancey & Rivington, Manhattan
Cover: $10 suggested but no one turned away for lack of funds
For more details
On accessibility at Dixon Place

Folking-Awesome is a three-night fest featuring DK & the Joy Machine with a different special guest each show. Our old friends Lindsey Wilson & the Human Heart Duo are on Thursday and the incredible So Brown is on Saturday, so even if you can’t make it to see us on Friday, I hope you can come down to Dixon Place and hear some amazing music!

xoxo,
Karen

There is a big article about our Brooklyn queer country scene in i-D! Read it here!

Hello dear cowpeople! Hope you can join us at C’mon Everybody for some queer country magic! The Sorrows have some brand new songs we can’t wait to play for you!

WHEN: Thursday, October 8th, 7:30 sharp
WHERE: C’mon Everybody, 325 Franklin Ave, Brooklyn, New York 11238
RSVP: facebook.com/events/773925929402525/
DOOR: $10, but if you’d like to come and can’t swing that, email me at karenandthesorrows@gmail.com

xoxo,
karen

p.s. You might have noticed that I switched us over from monthly to quarterly. If only it didn’t look weird to spell country with a q, we could be the Triple Q! All that to say, there will be a little more time in between shows so I can keep up better. Next up: Winter Edition, December 5th, back at Branded!

More about the bands:

So Brown is a critically acclaimed transgender musician, actor and model from Texas and Alabama. So’s debut album Point Legere, released in April 2014, was heralded as “Debut Album of the Year” by Innocent Words magazine, and So’s songs have been covered by such luminaries as Norah Jones. A rebellious pioneer of new gender possibilities, So embodies the belief that honesty in art can reveal the humanity that unites us all.

The Names of Things, the debut album from Brooklyn queer country band Karen & the Sorrows, is full of “haunting pedal steel work and unvarnished heartbreak.” (Bust Magazine) Voted one of the Freeform American Roots Chart’s best debut albums of 2014, the record is “some of the best alt-country being made.” (Billings Gazette) F**k Yeah, Queer Music says, “They write loss and heartbreak, and goddamn are they good at it.” The Sorrows also host queer country shows like the Queer Country Quarterly, helping to build new community for people who love country music even if country music doesn’t always love them back.

Justin Vahala Justin Vahala is a singing, song/writing, yoga teaching, tarot reading fool from Dallas, the shimmering turquoise inset of the Bible Belt. Justin uses his roots in southern folk and gay old musical theater to produce lyrical songs of heartbreak and hope for queers to hear. Past projects include his original musical, What Leaves the Wind Has Laid, which took place in a magical bathhouse ruled over by a witch. He is currently working on a new folk musical, The Ones I’ll Find, in which two boys with guitars break up only to realize that they can’t part with the tickets they’d bought to the same music festival. Can you imagine?!

Just when you thought we were taking the summer off, surprise! We are back for a special show! Come see Karen & the Sorrows at the summer edition of the Queer Country Monthly.

WHEN: Tuesday, July 28th, 8:00 pm
WHERE: Branded Saloon, 603 Vanderbilt Ave, at the corner of Bergen St, Brooklyn
DOOR: $5 but no one ever turned away for lack of funds
RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/1461865007442153/

Hello dear cowpeople and happy spring! The Queer Country Monthly is coming up this Saturday, April 18th, and this will be the last one in our limited run (at least for now), so you don’t want to miss it!

Also, you don’t want to miss it because we have a super-special line-up: Eli Conley is here on tour, plus DK & the Joy Machine with dulcimer amazingness, AJ Lewis & Friends with banjo amazingness, and your faithful host Karen & The Sorrows have some new songs to share with you. So come join us down at Branded Saloon!