San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Gay country music pioneer found fame late
Patrick Haggerty, who in 1973 released an album of country songs about same-sex romance that sold only 1,000 copies and seemed destined for eternal obscurity until, four decades later, its rediscovery brought him renown as the first openly gay country singer, died Oct. 31 at his home in Bremerton, Wash. He was 78.
The death was confirmed by his husband, Julius Broughton. He said Haggerty had suffered a stroke on a flight to Seattle on Sept. 30 after a show in Oakland.
The country music of Haggerty’s youth hardly acknowledged the existence of homosexuality, and when it did, the references were oblique and mocking. Billy Briggs’ “The Sissy Song,” released in 1951, proposed killing oneself as the adequate response to such unmanly habits as wearing the “pretty suede shoes that a lot of those sissies buy” and eating salad.
A concatenation of many things gave Haggerty the unusual inclination to make gay country music.
He had been inspired to come out of the closet after learning about the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York, credited with igniting the gay-rights movement. He soon joined a local Seattle chapter of the Gay Liberation Front, which helped form a gay community center and held demonstrations.
In 1972, he started himself on what would become his most enduring form of activism: creating a band called Lavender Country, essentially a solo project in which he got help from a few friends in Seattle. He wrote most of the songs, played acoustic guitar and sang lead on the group’s debut album, also called “Lavender Country,” which was sponsored by a local gay social services group.
Lavender Country attracted local attention, performing at gay pride parades in Seattle and San Francisco and eventually selling out a run of 1,000 copies of its album. But none of that constituted a living, and after a few years the group disbanded.
Haggerty became a hippie — living in communes, subsisting on food stamps, taking odd jobs like nude modeling.
Broughton did not learn of Lavender Country’s existence until he and Haggerty had been dating for three years, and even then it was thanks to a stroke of luck. Around 1990, Broughton was leafing through a friend’s record collection when the name “Lavender Country” caught his attention. He asked his friend what it was.
“‘That’s Patrick’s album,’ ” Broughton recalled the friend telling him. “I said, ‘Patrick’s what?’ ”
Broughton asked Haggerty about Lavender Country. “That’s part of the past,” Haggerty replied. “It’s a dead subject.”
But his view began to change in 1999, when the Journal of Country Music published an article that called Haggerty “the lost pioneer of out gay country music.”
It prompted him to try to relaunch Lavender Country, but he wound up settling on a more modest musical comeback: playing country standards at nursing homes around Bremerton, a small city on the Puget Sound.
The bigger comeback began in 2013, when Brendan Greaves, whose indie label Paradise of Bachelors specializes in reissues, found Haggerty’s phone number and called him. Greaves said he considered Lavender Country’s music important and worthy of reintroduction to the public, but Haggerty questioned Greaves, a straight man, about his intentions. For a moment the conversation grew tense.
But when the call ended, Haggerty was so moved that he burst into tears. And he happily struck a deal with Greaves.
The reissued album went on sale in 2014, accompanied by a chapbook that included an autobiographical interview with Haggerty, photos of him and transcriptions of his lyrics. It earned a “best new reissue” designation from the online music publication Pitchfork.
Haggerty became the subject of a documentary that won a prize at the 2016 South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas. And in February, backed by a new supporting band, he released “Blackberry Rose,” Lavender Country’s first new album in 49 years.
Patrick Ambrose Haggerty was born on Sept. 27, 1944, in the small coastal city of Hoquiam, Wash. His parents, Charles and Asylda (Remillard) Haggerty, worked as tenant dairy farmers.
Along with his 10 siblings, Patrick shoveled manure and did other farm chores. He sang country classics like “Your Cheatin’ Heart” at family gatherings.
In addition to Broughton, he is survived by a daughter, Robin Boland, whom he fathered with Lois Thetford, a lesbian friend; a sister, Judy Haggerty; two brothers, Tim and Peter; and a grandson. He also helped raise Amilcar Navarro, the son of a friend of his.