A cast of mostly Nashville-based stars, including Maren Morris, Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Yola, Sheryl Crow and Jason Isbell — plus one key out-of-towner, the Irishman Hozier — joined up wi…
, Yola, Sheryl Crow and Jason Isbell — plus one key out-of-towner, the Irishman Hozier — joined up with a host of Tennessee drag artists Monday night in Nashville to protest recent state legislation aimed at cross-dressing performers, trans youth and same-sex marriage. The four-hour “” benefit, which filled Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena with fans and LGBTQ+ community members and their allies, was also livestreamed to an international audience via the Veeps platform.
After speaking at length about her extremely mixed feelings about being a resident of Tennessee at present, Williams introduced her closing number in a more jocular fashion by saying, “I imagine if you’re a drag performer in this town — skilled, talented, creative, amazing — I can’t help but think that all of them wake up some mornings and are like, ‘Why the fuck did I shave my legs for this?’ You know? So here’s a Deana Carter song,” she said, launching into a cover of Carter’s 1995 No.
Nashville is often seen as a blue enclave in a deep-red state, and that feeling was bolstered by Nashville mayor John Cooper coming on stage midway through the benefit to deliver a proclamation that March 20 was officially Love Rising Day in the city. For all that’s changed, Oladokun added, “It’s fucking hard to live here — and anywhere, but specifically in a country that sometimes feels like it’s always attacking who I am. I know a lot of you feel the weight of that every single day, and I do too. And it’s hard not to just hide in the fucking house. But I wrote this song about the cyclical nature of life and how things turn around, hopefully for the better,” she said, introducing a song from her forthcoming album called “Somehow It’s New.
“As you know, I don’t hail from here in Tennessee, I’m from Ireland,” Hozier said. “But the revolutionary James Connolly once said that no revolutionary movement is complete without its political expression. And I feel just for me, there’s so many elements of queer culture that are at times no less than revolutionary.
One of the foremost transgender speakers of the evening was Cidny Bullens, a singer-songwriter who came to renown on the coasts in the ’70s and noted that he found community in the Nashville artist community before and after transitioning in the late ’90s. “It was Nashville that gave me a musical home, but all of that was as Cindy Bullens, my former self. All of my friends and colleagues here in Nashville supported me all through my transition and want and want me to thrive still,” Bullens said.
Williams, toward the end of the show, summed up the mixed feelings that come with being progressive in a state with a conservative legislative super-majority: “Especially going to marches and doing stuff in town that feels so hopeful and progressive and being around people that feel like-minded, it’s such a heartwarming feeling, and it makes you feel like change is happening. And then like something else will happen.
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