The media is full of reports of the First Gay Country Star. Gasp!
Dig a little deeper and you see that Chely Wright's career has been struggling since her glory days in the 90s, as she bounced from record label to record label. Country music is fully of one-disk-wonders lately, and the older, established musicians seem to get buried under the over-produced Country-Pop crap the labels are pushing out as fast as the public can take it.
Yes, I did listen to Country in the 90s and early 2000s. And I crossed over to Pop music when a lot of Country musicians did *coughShaniaTwainFanGirlcough*. And my music taste continued to evolve from there. I do still like some country music, but there are so many new people constantly breaking into the genre, I quit trying to keep up with it, and rarely remember to tune in until something happens to bring County to the mainstream media's attention.
Like yesterday's announcement. An announcement that conveniently was made the day before Chely's new CD and book were both released. Yes, it took guts to come out as a Country Singer, since it could well be a career-ender in such a statistically conservative genre. But look at all of the non-country music fans who just learned her name. They may all be saying "Should I know who she is?" right now, as Chelsea Handler did on her show last night, but come tomorrow they'll recognize Chely's name when they see her book on the shelf or CD on iTunes. Someone has a genius marketing team behind her.
Chely's timing was a wee bit off. The After Ellen Hot 100 voting closes on the 7th. Had her people managed to get her on that list, it would have added a nice sizzle to her newly claimed Lesbian status. Better luck next year Chely.
I may be calling it out, but I can't deny that this announcement got me curious. I'll admit I went on iTunes and bought her newest CD, as well as a couple of the oldies. And I'll probably flip through her book when I see it at Barnes and Noble.
Curious? I recommend you listen to "Single White Female," "Never Love You Enough," and "Emma Jean's Guitar."
One thing that has me scratching my head though: Chely claims she "felt pressured to keep her sexuality a secret after launching her career in 1994." Where are the ex-girlfriends? I want proof, name-dropping, something to show that she's not just the latest Celeb trying to cash in on the recent "popularity" and media buzz that comes from coming out *coughLindsayLohancough* in an attempt to revive careers that are circling the drain *coughRickyMartincough*.
---EDIT: 21 Feb 2012---
I feel the need to update since this post still gets a ridiculous amount of views even though it's old and forgotten. I really enjoyed Chely Wright's "new" CD. It was an entirely different sound than her previous releases and I feel it managed to break out of the country genre. It still (nearly 2 years later) gets a significant amount of play on both my computer and MP3 player (which mainly resides in my vehicle).
After reading her interview in Curve Magazine (May 2010) I was curious enough to order her memoir (Like Me) online. I'm a big fan of memoirs, but I've learned from experience not to expect too much from celebrity books. Some use ghost writers and the book doesn't feel sincere or the stories don't quite fit together right. Some celebrities simply aren't the best writers (and perhaps their books don't get enough focus from an editor) and as a result some of the stories can end up not flowing well or some have no significance other than to the writer.
I was surprised to discover that Chely's book had neither of these problems. The lady can write. She told a difficult story with grace, she managed to be engaging and keep my attention for the duration. I had a hard time putting the book down, and came away from it feeling like I knew her a little better, that I had shared something with her. I retract my previous statements, though I will leave them posted because they were my thoughts at the time based upon the information available. I do think that the early press releases were somewhat lacking in details and more focused on selling the shock value of a gay country star than the journey Ms. Wright had gone on to get to the point of coming out publicly.
Based on the talent she has shown, I don't see that Chely Wright's career can go anywhere but up. She's grown into an amazing singer and songwriter, she can tell one hell of a story, and she's done impressive work as a LGBT activist. Quite an impressive lady.
3 comments:
Coming out as a career move. Seems pretty convenient.
Why don't you read her book or interview
http://www.afterellen.com/people/2010/5/chely-wright-interview
before making an assumption that this is a publicity stunt.
I would like to point out that at the time of the first posting, neither the interview in Curve Magazine, nor the interview on After Ellen were published. I was making my speculations based on the news releases available that day, and they were hardly detailed. I did google looking for more information, but gist of the press releases were "Country Singer comes out, buy her book for more details, and oh by the way her new CD comes out tomorrow." That sounds like a publicity stunt to me.
I understand the need to come out in a controlled manner before people read the book and outed her in what may have been an ugly, slanderous manner, but the fact remains: it felt like a publicity stunt.
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