Biography
Although their visibility remained limited beyond the Pacific Northwest and they issued just a single self-distributed album, Lavender Country produced an authentic landmark as the earliest album of openly gay country material. The project originated with Patrick Haggerty, born and raised in Dry Creek, a modest rural settlement outside Port Angeles, Washington, where his tenant dairy-farming parents struggled to support ten children. At nine he received a twenty-five-dollar guitar from his father and learned to play without instruction. Radio broadcasts introduced him to country music, especially the work of Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, and Eddy Arnold; during his teenage years the folk revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s prompted him to perform folk material at coffeehouses and talent contests. Open about his homosexuality from an early age, Haggerty benefited from his father’s unusually supportive counsel: “Don’t sneak…if you spend your life sneaking, it means you think you’re doing the wrong thing…so whoever you run around with, don’t sneak and be proud of it.” After college he entered the Peace Corps in 1966 but was dismissed once his orientation became known, following an incident in India when he requested a room change after disclosing his attraction to his roommate.
Haggerty relocated to Seattle in 1970, shortly after the Stonewall uprisings ignited the modern gay liberation movement, and became active with Gay Community Social Services of Seattle, among the nation’s earliest LGBTQ+ organizations. There he composed material drawn from personal experience and the political concerns of the gay community, leading to the 1972 formation of Lavender Country. The lineup featured Haggerty on lead vocals and acoustic guitar, Michael Carr on piano, Eve Morris on violin, guitar, and vocals, and the group’s sole heterosexual member, Robert Hammerstrom, on lead guitar and Dobro. While the arrangements drew on Haggerty’s affection for country and folk traditions, the lyrics advanced explicit political statements and addressed love and sexuality without apology. The band performed regularly at political rallies and gay pride gatherings throughout the Northwest and along the West Coast. In 1973, with support from GCSSS, Lavender Country recorded a ten-song self-titled album at a local studio. Lacking distribution experience, the musicians placed copies in gay and lesbian bookstores and advertised mail-order sales in emerging gay periodicals nationwide.
The initial pressing of one thousand copies eventually sold out, yet no further edition was produced, and despite the members’ dedication the project achieved no commercial breakthrough. Lavender Country disbanded in 1976, though occasional reunions continued through 1979. Haggerty sustained his activism, worked in social services, and continued making music privately with various collaborators. A 2000 Journal of Country Music article surveying gay and lesbian contributions to country music identified the Lavender Country LP as the first of its kind; the recognition prompted a limited CD reissue and several reunion performances, including a Seattle Pride appearance that year. The original album entered the Country Music Hall of Fame archives. In 2014 Paradise of Bachelors reissued the record with a thirty-page booklet containing extensive liner notes and a fresh interview with Haggerty. The edition earned widespread critical acclaim, establishing Haggerty belatedly as a pioneer of queer country music; he performed with a reconstituted Lavender Country and appeared in numerous music and LGBTQ+ publications. A second album, Blackberry Rose and Other Songs and Sorrows from Lavender Country, was self-released in 2019, followed by a wider edition from Don Giovanni Records in 2022. Patrick Haggerty died on October 31, 2022, at the age of seventy-eight after suffering a stroke.
Haggerty relocated to Seattle in 1970, shortly after the Stonewall uprisings ignited the modern gay liberation movement, and became active with Gay Community Social Services of Seattle, among the nation’s earliest LGBTQ+ organizations. There he composed material drawn from personal experience and the political concerns of the gay community, leading to the 1972 formation of Lavender Country. The lineup featured Haggerty on lead vocals and acoustic guitar, Michael Carr on piano, Eve Morris on violin, guitar, and vocals, and the group’s sole heterosexual member, Robert Hammerstrom, on lead guitar and Dobro. While the arrangements drew on Haggerty’s affection for country and folk traditions, the lyrics advanced explicit political statements and addressed love and sexuality without apology. The band performed regularly at political rallies and gay pride gatherings throughout the Northwest and along the West Coast. In 1973, with support from GCSSS, Lavender Country recorded a ten-song self-titled album at a local studio. Lacking distribution experience, the musicians placed copies in gay and lesbian bookstores and advertised mail-order sales in emerging gay periodicals nationwide.
The initial pressing of one thousand copies eventually sold out, yet no further edition was produced, and despite the members’ dedication the project achieved no commercial breakthrough. Lavender Country disbanded in 1976, though occasional reunions continued through 1979. Haggerty sustained his activism, worked in social services, and continued making music privately with various collaborators. A 2000 Journal of Country Music article surveying gay and lesbian contributions to country music identified the Lavender Country LP as the first of its kind; the recognition prompted a limited CD reissue and several reunion performances, including a Seattle Pride appearance that year. The original album entered the Country Music Hall of Fame archives. In 2014 Paradise of Bachelors reissued the record with a thirty-page booklet containing extensive liner notes and a fresh interview with Haggerty. The edition earned widespread critical acclaim, establishing Haggerty belatedly as a pioneer of queer country music; he performed with a reconstituted Lavender Country and appeared in numerous music and LGBTQ+ publications. A second album, Blackberry Rose and Other Songs and Sorrows from Lavender Country, was self-released in 2019, followed by a wider edition from Don Giovanni Records in 2022. Patrick Haggerty died on October 31, 2022, at the age of seventy-eight after suffering a stroke.
Albums
Singles
