Queer Camp Meets the Mainstream in Paisley Fields’ “Ride Me Cowboy”

By Mya Byrne

Ready for a rip-rollicking-romp through the backcountry of Tennessee and backyards of Oakland? Welcome to Paisley Fields’ new video and first single for Don Giovanni Records, “Ride Me Cowboy”, a veritable slideshow of classic country imagery queered to the nth degree, as befits this Nashville-by-way-of-New York-and-Iowa cowpoke. The music, recorded by Drew Watson and produced by Trace Faulkner in Nashville, is a tongue-firmly-in-cheek ode to classic and contemporary country themes, with Paisley’s piano taking the forefront, chiming along with his group of queermo pals having a gay ol’ time in the vid. Wrangler jeans, back porches, backsides, and John Deere farm equipment all play central roles in the footage directed by Benjamin Stranger, with additional photography by Lorin Murphy of San Francisco’s Periwinkle Cinema.

It’s rare to have a pianist taking such a starring role in any popular music, and Paisley, no stranger to the road, is making a name behind the keys in the ivory-burnin’ tradition of Leon Russell and Elton John. If you like booty-shakin’ with your loping cowboy beats, this is the song and video for you. This song is firmly in the zeitgeist of queer country, and will get you smiling happy and your feet tapping. NSFW!