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Shawna Virago Reflects on LGBTQ Country Music: ‘We’re Breaking the Mold and Keepers of the Flame’
Shawna Virago reflects on LGBTQ country music and talks her new album, 'Blood In Her Dreams.'
While the flavor of Los Angeles punk pioneers X has always inspired Virago’s (comparatively quieter) music, Blood In Her Dreams finds her adding an electric jolt of cowpunk adrenaline to her lyrically detailed, emotionally resonant Americana. Songs like “Ghosts Cross State Lines,” “Eternity Street” and “Climb to the Bottom” paint empathetic, vivid portraits of hard-luck types who’ve been battered but not beaten by life; like Lucinda Williams, Virago finds a dusty beauty in the rugged troublemakers living a country mile from polite society. We wanted to create a band sound on the record, so I worked with the engineer Grace Coleman, who is also co-producer, but as far as performance goes, I’m still doing solo acoustic shows.
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