August 30, 2017 (Press Release) - Queer Country pioneers Karen & the Sorrows have officially released their new albumThe Narrow Place. Along with the release, Karen & the Sorrows shared a handful of tour dates that will take them down the East Coast before their official album release party in Brooklyn with Patrick Haggerty opening. Haggerty put out what is widely considered the first openly gay country album back in 1973. Like any roots band, The Sorrows sing about heartbreak and loss. They just take the back roads less traveled to get there. From a queer reimagining of the bro-country pickup truck ode to a Jewish family story about immigration and race, these songs are both unexpected and entirely country. The Sorrows’ sound centers around singer-songwriter Karen Pittelman’s high, lilting vocals and Elana Redfield’s lonesome pedal steel guitar mixed with the dark twang and steady beat of the 1970s country-rock the band grew up on. Pittelman, Redfield, and drummer Tami Johnson formed the Brooklyn-based band in 2011. In 2012 they released the EP Ocean Born Mary about a ghost story from Redfield’s New Hampshire hometown. In 2014, they put out their first full-length record, The Names of Things, which was voted one of the Freeform American Roots Chart’s best debut albums of the year. A constant fixture in New York’s clubs and bars, the Sorrows have continued to build a strong local following as well as touring throughout the east coast from New England to New Orleans The Sorrows are also at the center of a growing queer country scene, creating a community for people who love country music even if country music doesn’t always love them back. For the last six years, they’ve run Brooklyn’s Gay Ole Opry Festival and the Queer Country Quarterly. “Now more than ever, we are grateful to be in community with so many amazing musicians,” Pittelman says. “Country music can tell compelling stories about family, love, heartbreak, and strength. Those stories should include all of our families, all of our love, and especially all of our heartbreak and our strength.”
Check out Karen & the Sorrows on tour... 9/7 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Howler's Cafe 9/8 - Columbus, OH @ Slammers 9/9 - Urbana, IL @ The Iron Post 9/10 - Lexington, KY @ Willie's Locally Known 9/11 - Nashville, TN @ Dee's Country Cocktail Lounge 9/12 - Knoxville, TN @ Crafty Bastard 9/13 - Athens, GA @ The World Famous 9/14 - Chapel Hill, NC @ The Nightlight 9/15 - Harrisonburg, VA @ The Artful Dodger 9/16 - Baltimore, MD @ Reverb 9/22 - Brooklyn, NY @ C'mon Everybody
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