QueerCuts: Indiana Queen
I’m currently sitting in a 100+ year old log cabin in Saanich, British Columbia. I’m on tour, starting to lose my voice, staring down a road of two more shows and 1000+ more miles by Sunday. At 7:30am this can create a bit of a mood. A heady mix of exhaustion, anticipation, nostalgia, melancholy, and heady excitement. The perfect soundtrack for such a moment? Indiana Queen.
I’ve been remiss in not covering Indiana Queen sooner. One of the pillars of queer country – Kevin James Thornton (also the founder of Strange Fire Magazine) has been living in Nashville, crafting brilliantly powerful and vulnerable songs, and shining his talent out on stage for years now. If you haven’t heard the classic country sounds of Indiana Queen, well friends…. now is the time. Check out the live take of ‘Last Night I Had A Dream’ below!
More about Indiana Queen:
Indiana Queen is a queer-folk band that resides in Nashville, TN. Fronted by Kevin James Thornton, the band is blazing a new path in a traditionally conservative genre.
The Huffington Post said, “There are traces of Hank Williams. The pulse of “Jolene.” Chord progressions that originated in the Baptist Hymnal. However, these influences meet at an unexpected crossroads with Antony and The Johnsons, Roxy Music and Tom Waits.” about their first album “This I Do Carry Unto The End.”
No Depression said, “Thornton succeeds in calling up the ghost of that great spirit of true country music outsider artists who eventually gain wider acceptance. He walks the same independent road of Hank Williams and Townes Van Zandt and carries the same confidence Waylon Jennings brought to country music in the early ’70s.”