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fall-queer-country-quarterly__facebookDearest 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.

When: Saturday, November 19th, 9:00 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
Details: https://www.facebook.com/events/1214825421925821/
Access: wheelchair-accessible entrance and bathroom, please email if you need reserved seating or have any other access questions

And also, as usual, free candy. Because we love you.

xoxo,
karen

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Queer Country QuarterlyAmythyst 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!

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FA_fbbanner-v2Hello 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

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Beast_of_Bourbon_twitterWe’re opening for the amazing Maynard & the Musties at Beast of Bourbon in Bed-Stuy on Friday and we can’t wait! We’re gonna take a little time off after this one to work on some new songs, so if you’ve been meaning to come to a show lately, this is the one to catch!

WHEN: Friday, February 5th, we’re on first at 8:30
WHERE: Beast of Bourbon, 710 Myrtle Ave bet Walworth St & Spencer St, Brooklyn (G to Myrtle-Willoughby or Bedford-Nostrand)
RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/996224503790564

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Aviv_January_2_TwitterFriends, just in case you need some sad country songs to help you recover from the holidays, The Sorrows are playing this Saturday in Greenpoint. Come start the new year off with some twang!

WHEN: Saturday, January 2nd, 8 PM
WHERE: Aviv, 496 Morgan Ave, Brooklyn, L to Graham or G to Nassau
RSVP: facebook.com/events/1580612162180205/
WITH: Oh Oh Ecstasy,The Johannas, Crisco Dreams, and Feral Foster.

xoxo,
karen

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Winter Queer Country Quarterly_TwitterFriends, it’s time for the Winter Queer Country Quarterly this Saturday! With the wonderful Joshua Marcus on tour from Providence, dreamy cosmic-country goodness from Wiley Gaby’s Goldenchild, and your faithful Sorrows, who have been working hard on our new Jew-country, James-Baldwin-influenced song cycle.

WHEN: Saturday, December 5th, 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/517247595091677/

Branded has a wheelchair accessible entrance and bathroom. Also, there is always a bucket of free candy for people who enjoy candy. Read more about the bands below and hope to see you on Saturday!

xoxo,
karen

More about the bands:
Joshua Marcus
Joshua Marcus loves cooking, all things musical, and to both orchestrate & be part of tangibly authentic experiences in the actual world. Joshua’s current musical interests are writing and performing our perceived shared truths, as well as syllabic syncopation and off time rhyming à la rap, r&b, hip hop, math rock. JM has been writing & performing for two decades. Current goal: 3new eps and poem chapbook in 2016!

Goldenchild
Influenced by classic country storytelling, melancholy pop melodies, and pretty things, Brooklyn-based, Florida-born songwriters Wiley Gaby & Jeffrey Doker set out to carve a space where their seemingly disparate influences could meet, mingle, and ultimately blur genre lines to create beautiful new music. On their debut album, Goldenchild merges elements of classic country and ambient soundscapes with a respectable hint of pop sensibility. The result is “gorgeous, cosmic country” that NYC’s Next magazine calls “damn beautiful.”

Karen & The Sorrows
Queer country pioneers Karen & the Sorrows “write loss and heartbreak, and goddamn are they good at it.” (F**k Yeah, Queer Music) Their album The Names of Things is full of “haunting pedal steel work and unvarnished heartbreak” (Bust Magazine) and was voted one of the Freeform American Roots chart’s best debut albums of 2014.

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Rock_Shop_BannerHello there, lovelies! We’ve got a show this Friday at Rock Shop with some amazing country bands: Tatters & Rags, Emily Duff, and The Junior Brothers. It’s gonna be so much fun, so you should definitely come.

WHEN: This Friday, November 6th, doors at 7:30, we’re on at 11:00
WHERE: Rock Shop, 249 4th Avenue, between President and Carroll, Brooklyn, R to Union
COVER: $8 (but email me if this is more than you can do and we will figure it out!)
RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/1501885680138582/

Also, did you see the big article about Brooklyn queer country in i-D? Check it out, we are fancy!

And don’t forget to save the date for our next show, the winter Queer Country Quarterly at Branded on December 5th with Joshua Marcus and Wiley Gaby’s band Goldenchild!

xoxo,
karen

More about the bands

THE JUNIOR BROTHERS (8PM)
Kicking things off, the Juniors are purveyors of grit-soaked goodness. Four-on-the-floor, straight-ahead twang to get you moving.

EMILY DUFF (9PM)
Emily’s got a whisky-rasp to die for, and writes songs that are sharp, incisive, and funny to go along with it. Her latest record, GO TELL YOUR FRIENDS, calls up Memphis blues, country rock, and a winking world-weariness that grabs your ears and won’t let go.

TATTERS & RAGS (10PM)
Brooklyn’s only skronky-tonk band, like a roaring locomotive barely keeping to its own booze-soaked tracks. Male-female harmonies overlay pounding jams about hell, moonshine, and heartache.

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Queer Country Quarterly_twitter

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?!