
Brooklyn-based country band Karen & the Sorrows are exactly what country music needs right now. Karen Pittelman, Elana Redfield, and Tami Johnson formed in 2011 and since have become a pillar in the local queer country music scene, continuing the work bands like Lavender Country began in the 70s. Their songs use traditional country tropes—love, loss, heartbreak, shame—but sung from the queer perspective. On paper, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal; a lot of the music we love these days is made by queer people. In country music, though, bigoted values and an outright phobic industry means that even one slight deviation from the norm can lead to one helluva world of pain…