Hello From Your Friend In Low Places
Hi everyone!
I’m about to release a a cover of Garth Brook’s “Friends In Low Places” in honour of pride month. It first time I’m releasing country music in almost twenty years and I’m at a loss as to how to get the word out without touring like I used to (I have shows in Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Ottawa, but I can’t tour internationally).
Over the past five years, the success of artists like Little Naz X, Maya Bern, Allison Russell, Maren Moriss and artists like Beyonce, Chapell Roan and Kasey Musgraves creating country music, I felt it was good time to reclaim the music that I grew up with on my own terms.
Being a trans country singer in 2001 was more often balked as an oxymoron at than taken seriously. There was not a lot of information about what trans people were and I often found myself talking more about that than my music. Major Newspapers ran articles about me with headlines like: “She thinks she is a man.”
I retired from country music in 2007 (to other genres) because I did not feel that I (and many of my friends) were safe in the country music establishment. I was not willing to continue participating in white centering, ultra-colonial, cis/hetero-centric, spaces that deny the Black and Indigenous Roots of the genre.
When the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic started, I was diagnosed with cancer three days after I got home in March 2020. After a four-year treatment and complication journey, I finally stabilized my health enough to start thinking about traveling and playing music again. My return to playing live music involved some adaptive planning as a Disabled artist who wants to create space for other Disabled artists and audiences, but I (with help from community) was slowly figuring it out.
My dream was and is to connect with many other artists and audiences from other under-represented groups who have a relationship to country music in many different countries including the USA, the UK and Germany. I have been touring internationally since 2001 and have relationships with many venues, musicians, festivals, media and communities in many countries.
With a broad attack on trans rights in the USA, and the UK and artistic boycotts on countries like Strike Germany (which I support for a free Palestine) mean I won’t be going to countries I previously spent a lot of time in to share my new music.
My plans included finding other transgender country artists in the USA to play, write and record music with. I had hoped in 2026 go to Nashville, SXSW and other USA places for the first time because there would be communities I could find to connect with. I was also going to play in the UK this summer and Germany in 2026.
The global attack on trans rights we are seeing now reminds me of what I heard about the first steps made by the Nazi government in Germany when they came to power. On May 6, 1933, Magnus Hirschfield’s Institute Of Sexology (An academic foundation devoted to sexological research and the advocacy of homosexual rights) in Berlin was looted and the books from the library were burned. I have written books involving my gender and sexuality (First Spring Grass Fire, Gender Failure and Green Glass Ghosts), which I am certain would have been burned if they were in Berlin in 1933.
My birth certificate has the sex designation of “X” on it. I won’t be to get a visa to play or to visit to the USA anytime soon. My profile as an out trans person who has book distribution in the USA has been to New York for the Lambda awards as a nominee in the Trans Fiction category, also been the subject of feature documentary about my experiences as a trans person that was an official selection at Sundance in 2014 (My Prairie Home) all give me pause because I’m sure I’m on some long list of public trans people that may be targeted at the border. I am aware that more meaningfully marginalized trans/nonbinary people are the ones who are incurring the most harm. There are many people whose lives are at risk. That is far more important than my livelihood,
These things are more than dog whistles. They are targeted, systemic attacks. In addition, I was disinvited from a Canadian university performance and speaking engagement because I was trans in 2025. Concerns over losing funding because a trans person was invited to speak were cited. With so many people being ousted out of academic environments for their identities and political support for places like Palestine, my first reaction was: “I’m in good company.”
Yet, it’s no wonder trans, nonbinary and/or queer people of every new generation can mistake ourselves for the first of our kind to exist. It’s not an enviable position and I suspect all of us would rather be aware of our long line of ancestors than to be falsely lauded as “trail blazers.” If the trail keeps being destroyed over and over, the cycle will continue.
I have learned from Indigenous leaders that have shared decolonial ideas in their work that music (like everything) Is an ecology not an industry. We can still create connection with each other outside of large-scale music industry parameters by making our own goals and community building.
To people with the USA, the UK and Germany who I won’t be able to connect with in person for a while: Let’s try to stay connected in the ways that we can. Send me your music and art when it comes out, so I can hear it and share it with my friends. I want to hear your songs, read your zines and books, collaborate on music production, catch up online with all of you! I’m at raespoon at gmail dot com
To people in Canada, I want play in large and small communities in 2026, I can come solo or bring my band. Through slow touring I’d love to spend a week or two in a region facilitating workshops, participating in panels and literary events, working with local folks to create/produce new music. Ideally, there would be a concert at the end where anyone who wants to share what we worked on performs and I play a set with my band. If we start early, we can find the funding! You can find me at my email above.
I recorded the song “Friends In Low Places” because (like a lot of under-represented people) I feel like I’m being pushed into new low places, but I’m thinking that if everyone in low places tries to find and support one another, there’s still a lot of magic to make in spite of everything that’s happening. So much love to everyone and see you out there somehow!
Rae