Chris Housman talks about the album “Blueneck”, iTunes and queer country music
After a decade in Nashville, Kansas native Chris Housman has now released the album “Blueneck,” which is entirely country-influenced and inclusive of queer identity.
For the past decade, Chris Housman has been known, albeit not overtly, as one of Nashville’s most authentic and soulful singer-songwriters dedicated to country music.
Housman grew up on a farm 40 miles north of Dodge City, Kansas, where gunslinger Wyatt Earp worked as a lawman and gambler, so his story is tailor-made for some recognition in mainstream country music.
However, he is also openly gay.
It’s 2024, and mainstream culture is telling people all over the world that pro-heterosexual stereotypes in country music should no longer be a central issue.
Notably, TJ Osborne of the Brothers Osborne has won awards from the Academy of Country Music and Grammys since his debut in 2021.
Housman took the stage at the 2024 Academy of Country Music Awards as CMT’s co-signed Equal Access Scholarship winner with the album “Blueneck” out May 31. He is a clear example of who and what is next when it comes to embedding queer artists deeper into the mainstream country music industry.
‘Blueneck’
Housman’s Arrival is the culmination of a three-year process that began with the viral success of his album’s title track, as marginalized country fans rallied around songs that thematically broke the genre’s barriers.
“Blueneck” in particular is a tribute to a “soft-hearted,” liberal “good ol’ boy,” and a “hillbilly” who grew up “with cornfields in every direction.” However, Housman believes “y’all” means everyone, and he preaches unity regardless of gender, race, or sexual orientation.
Online, country fans worldwide were captivated by a song that reignited many’s interest in the genre. In terms of perception, many fans on the queer fringes of the genre believe that for every Garth Brooks, there are 10 Kid Rocks, which has prevented them from continuing to be interested in the genre because it feels like an unsafe cultural space.
Housman’s work, along with the rise of the Brothers Osborne and the emergence of a collaborative, black and queer artist-friendly space shaped by artists like Grammy winners Brandi Carlile and Brandy Clark, Americana darlings Amythyst Kiah and Allison Russell, renowned songwriter Shane McAnally, and collectives like the Black Opry, led to a sharp increase in the visibility of queer groups online from Nashville and beyond.
Something else was taking shape as the world emerged from COVID-19 quarantine and began interacting in real time. As a child of country music in the 1990s and early 2000s, Housman can of course emulate something similar to Tim McGraw’s swagger, but underpinned by a disarming level of honest earnestness.
This sets up a path that goes from “Blueneck” debuting as the No. 1 song on the iTunes Country charts (No. 4 on iTunes across all genres) and in the top 20 of Billboard’s Digital Country Sales chart to being nominated by CMT’s Equal Access in their 2024 cohort.
Added to this is the anthem “Follow Your Arrow” by Kacey Musgraves, written by Clark and McAnally and awarded the Country Music Association Song of the Year, to the mix of songs that strengthened his resolve to live openly as a gay man and still work in Music City until the release of “Blueneck”.
“Intentionally distinctive songs”
Ten years later, with an album that’s the result of a decade of hard work, he’s found a formula for Nashville songwriting that honors the genre’s classic era through the nostalgic style of love ballads like “Guilty as Sin,” but also incorporates progressive ideas like honoring drag queens through words and actions into the mix.
These songs, along with “Blueneck,” are the cornerstones. Going even deeper are songs like “Laid Back” and “Long Story Long,” R&B-influenced country radio jams that have recently become as familiar to the format as anything by Russell Dickerson, Walker Hayes or Thomas Rhett.
“These are intentionally distinctive songs that reflect who I really am, as someone who grew up with the same ‘country’ values and lives a life defined by them as I do by the values of others,” says Housman. “Yes, there are factors that contribute to my success, but at some point I don’t want to feel like the song is to blame.”
“Yes, I’m gay, but I also really love being on boats and drinking beer.”
He also grew up under the influence of what he describes as “humanitarian and fear-mongering conservative Christian values” that imposed an implicit morality on his life and whose rejection he still feels today.
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He honestly admits that microdosing psilocybin helped him with this process – and also with writing “Blueneck” clearly and directly.
“It’s fun to write narrative songs about loving your neighbor no matter what, and to record songs about loving people who look different or love differently than others,” Housman says. “It’s also satisfying to write lighthearted songs about freedom, but also to record ones that occasionally affirm people’s gender identities.”
He hopes that his work, along with increased attention for artists like Carlile and Clark, the Osborne brothers and Russell, Apple Music Radio host and singer-songwriter Fancy Hagood, and accomplished artists like Ty Herndon and others, will create a lucrative and socially safe space defined by “authentic self-expression.”
Redefining “authenticity”
Extend that “authenticity” up the ladder of newly welcoming communal and lucrative social spaces in Nashville and country music, and almost immediately the idea becomes apparent that queer liberation is tied to the same basic emotional roots as the solution to black liberation, social reintegration of the incarcerated, and empathy toward people struggling with substance abuse issues.
“When you move away from the feeling that exploring our most honest emotions is taboo in country music and mainstream Nashville, a new definition of what song publishers call ‘the stuff that cuts through and stands out,'” Housman says.
A statement about how he sees the power of communicating the truth through a three-minute country song is also the strongest argument for why Housman’s songs have recently been gaining more and more attention and recognition.
“The personal details of my life seem to resonate with more people than I ever thought they would,” he says. “This validation has opened the doors for me to realize that (embodying) my most vulnerable self makes me the best artist.”
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