Kevin Thornton (Indiana Queen)

I've first discovered Indiana Queen, the Alt. Country brainchild of out gay man Kevin Thornton, a year ago in an article about the release of the video for the song With You in NewNowNext.

The video is a melancholy yet hopeful love story—shot and edited entirely on iPhones—featuring lead singer Kevin Thornton and his real-life partner, Del Ray Zimmerman. 

“We found each other in our 40s,” says Thornton. “We had both given up on love in some ways. The video shows two people like that who have been beat up by love and life. Gay or straight, that’s something anyone can relate to.”

I loved the song, tried to find more about the band and ended up on Kevin's mailing list. In his emails he comes across as pleasant, friendly and very human.

Indiana Queen, left to right: Kevin Thornton, Chris Housman & Samuel Damewood

Their 2015 album was called This I Do Carry Unto The End and received great reviews. The Huffington Post said, “There are traces of Hank Williams. The pulse of “Jolene.” Chord progressions that originated in the Baptist Hymnal. However, these influences meet at an unexpected crossroads with Antony and The Johnsons, Roxy Music and Tom Waits.”

No Depression said, “Thornton succeeds in calling up the ghost of that great spirit of true country music outsider artists who eventually gain wider acceptance. He walks the same independent road of Hank Williams and Townes Van Zandt and carries the same confidence Waylon Jennings brought to country music in the early ’70s.”

My personal opinion is that it's an album that should appeal to Country fans, Indie fans, Pop fans and gay people alike.

Let's hear another great song from this album. This is This Is Me Trying:

Here's a faster paced song: Last Night I Had A Dream.

There are other tracks, like Went To The Mountain and Baby, I'm OK that I would have liked to feature here, but I couldn't find them in youtube. However, you can listen to (and order) the whole album here:

http://indianaqueen.com/listen/

Their followup album, I Built A Fire, came out a few months ago. “I have no interest in pretending to be someone else. I don’t care if Nashville isn’t ready for it.” said Thornton in reference to his sexuality. “The album is country, but let’s be serious, there is nothing traditional about Indiana Queen.”

A standout track from their second album, whose homoerotic video went viral with 75k views in it’s first week, is I Don’t Know What To Do:

The song and video received excellent press: "it seems as if people like when pop-culture sexual representation is a little less heteronormative. So, when it comes to making groundbreaking videos, Indiana Queen might just, in fact, know what to do." said New York Magazine.

Mic enthused: "The moody black and white clip is Brokeback Mountain meets Chris Isaak's Wicked Game meets vintage gay leather bar. Which is to say that it is pure homosexual perfection."

For opening track Everyone I Passed Today, Indiana Queen partnered with the American Refugee Committee, with all proceeds from the download of this song going to ARC to help Syrian refugees. It's a great song.

Here's title track I Built A Fire:

And here's Here Right Now, just guitar and vocals:

A couple of months ago Kevin wrote this:

"To anyone who has cared at all about my musical endeavors,

the end is nigh

I’ve been telling Del Ray that at age 50 I want to “retire” and do something else entirely with the rest of my life. I could tell that surprised him, and after a little thought I understood why. Why would anyone want to retire from their passion? From something that you love?

The answer is complicated.

I almost just now wrote, “because I don’t really love it anymore. It was my passion when I was 20. For the last two decades I’ve been chasing the passion of a version of myself that doesn’t exist anymore.” But, it’s not entirely true to say I don’t love it anymore.

There are huge chunks of it that I don’t love anymore. When I’m sitting alone with my guitar and a beautiful melody or a thoughtful lyric comes out of me, that I love. But that is truly all that is left of the passion for a music career.

Touring hurts my soul. Marketing hurts my soul. Trying to sell tickets hurts my soul.  You get the idea. I’m truly tired of struggling through the soul hurting all for something I don’t actually want anymore. So, I’m going into a new (and very probably final) phase of my life as a performer.

Why have I continued on for long? Well… good question. I guess it has always felt like after all these years of work and pain and tears that there should be some big moment. Some final flourish I that I keep expecting just around the corner where I can say “ah yes here it is at last.” I’ve been anticipating it for 20 years. I’ve had many small successes that are each bricks in this strange wall of my life. Sometimes if feels like this wall is now blocking the path to myself. The me that I am today versus who I was when I was young.

So, I’m going to create my own big final flourish. This is the final phase. I’m going to strip away everything that feels burdensome. The only thing left  in it that I love is the creation of the song, so that is all I’m going to do. I have a simple tape machine in my home. I will attempt to capture these moments and when I do I will release them into the world. I will release them without regard of marketing or hype or any of the music biz showbiz bullshit things that hurt me. I won’t do those things anymore. I’ll put the music out as it comes without regard to strategic marketing timing or whatever. That means I might put out 3 albums in a year. Or not.

This is my own big finish. I want to leave a sizable (and hopefully authentic and good) body of work. When I am done, I’m going to close the door and walk away.

How long will this final phase last? I don’t know. My sense is like a couple years or so. I feel like I’ve got 4 or 5 albums worth of music in me. So however long it takes to get that out."

Then, fortunately, things looked up for him. He wrote:

"a curious development:

a couple of weeks ago I drew a sort of proverbial "line in the sand" with the universe. After over 20 years of trying to get a foothold in the land of elusive music careers, I'd had enough. I love writing music, but that constant marketing hustle had seriously eroded my spirit. I can't do it anymore.

I decided to embark on a new phase where I just focus on the artistry of it, and let the other stuff fall where it may. I'm still recording the set of songs I was planning on releasing early next year accompanying a full length art film that goes with the entire album. That is what the pledgemusic campaign below is for. Click and watch that video. The film will be online this winter.

So this past week, out of nowhere the publicist who manages Cazwell, Lady Bunny, and Bianca Del Rio reached out and expressed interest in taking Indiana Queen as a client. We've taken some steps forward and it looks like it's happening. Just when I said "I can't do this anymore" someone steps in and takes that burden from my plate."

3 weeks ago, this came:

"When I look back over the last year or so, I am thankful for the amount of success we've had. There were several years of struggle before it, but a lot of things really came to fruition last year. We released our first 2 albums (both are available for immediate download when you pre-order the new album at pledgemusic.com) and I just added up all of our video views and altogether it's almost 200k views!

I'm hoping this next project is the biggest splash yet. It's an album. It's also a film. It's an album film. 

You may have read my little proclamation a few weeks back about how I was entering a new phase where I couldn't burden myself with the biz of it all anymore. And I'm still in that place. I'm just focusing my energy on making art, and that's it. As a new experiment a great PR firm in NYC who also represents Cazwell, Bianca Del Rio and more is now working for Indiana Queen. I hope this will take some of the burden off...

The pledgemusic campaign is 100% how this new thing is going to happen with your help. Can't happen without you. The clock is ticking and there's a long way to go in a short amount of time. If you know you are going to buy the new album, please go ahead and do it today. http://www.pledgemusic.com/indianaqueen

thanks. and stay tuned"

This came yesterday:

"There's only a couple weeks left to join the pledgemusic campaign and there's quite a long way to go. Please pre order today. it only takes a second and it will enable us to really get this new project off the ground

pre-order the new album now: http://www.pledgemusic.com/indianaqueen

If you aren't already aware, we are doing something really ambitious this time. the new album is also a film, complete with professional dancers and everything! learn more by watching the video: http://www.pledgemusic.com/indianaqueen

There's lots of options including T-shirts and more. It's not a donation, you are simply purchasing our art in advance to allow us to complete it. Thank you!"

I think you should at least check it out, you guys. What do you think?

To end this on a fun note, Kevin has a drag "alter ego" called Cupcake Hawthorne. You can check her out here: