Editor Ruby here with our final Pride edition of the Friday-Know-It-All this week:

We loved this article by Scottie Andrew about the history and present of queer country music. It talks about current artists like Orville Peck, Lil Nas X, and Amythyst Kiah, but we were particularly drawn to the story of the band Lavender Country. Founded by Patrick Haggerty after he was dismissed from the Peace Corps for being gay, the founding quartet also consisted of keyboardist Michael Carr, singer and fiddler Eve Morris, and guitarist Robert Hammerstrom, who Wikipedia describes as the band’s “only heterosexual member [citation needed].” Their first album, in 1973, was self titled and is currently available to stream. The album’s lead single, “Cryin' These Cocksucking Tears,” 1) rules and 2) got a Seattle DJ fired for playing it on the radio in 1973.

Haggerty called his career “dead as a doornail” after this album and devoted himself to socialist causes. The album was rediscovered by a producer on eBay in the early 2010s and re-released in 2014, leading to a new formation of the band. Haggerty collaborated with fellow queer country artist Trixie Mattel on her 2020 song “Stranger.” “Stranger” is a re-imagining of Lavender Country’s “I Can’t Shake the Stranger Out of You,” and a version of that song ended up as the first on Lavender Country’s second album, released 49 years after their first one, “Blackberry Rose.” You can also hear Haggerty telling stories on NPR’s StoryCorps.

Speaking of queer media, I just finished reading A.R. Capetta’s “The Heartbreak Bakery,” a lightly magical realist young adult novel about an agender teen named Syd, who is coping with a big breakup while working at Austin queer bakery and community space The Proud Muffin. It’s adorable! And there’s some recipes in it that look really good — I will be making the strawberry peach basil pie next week.