Until recently, few people knew that the first openly gay country album came out of Seattle in 1973. Songwriter Patrick Haggerty’s band Lavender Country and their eponymous debut were largely lost to time before a YouTube rip of “Cryin’ These Cocksucking Tears” made it to the right ears and resulted in a 2014 reissue. The album is, in small part, the novelty record it appears to be—Haggerty’s a witty lyricist with an odd voice and a penchant for sex humor leading a ragtag band—but also deals with people being committed to asylums or killed for their sexual preferences. It’s a unique middle ground between sincerity and silliness where Haggerty (who became a lifelong political activist) voiced a radical response to the repression of the era while still having a good time. Forty years later, Lavender Country finally has the audience it deserves. JOSHUA JAMES AMBERSON