Throwback Thursday: NPR’s ‘For Gay Christian Musicians, Work Balances Faith, Art, Love’

We don’t have time for awkward adolescent photos of Flair Gun to post, but for the popular Throwback Thursday hashtag, we thought we’d approach it a bit differently. Instead, we’d like to point you to past articles about LGBT music and musicians. From profiles to news to think pieces, we want to perpetuate queer dialogue in the music continuum. And for our first installment, we point you to this 2011 piece by David Person on LGBT Christian musicians. This came out of our research after listening to Tim Dillinger‘s pop-gospel track “Say Thank You” featuring B. Slade from his newest release The Baton 1985.

From NPR.org.

Dillinger says coming out went from being a freeing experience to a devastating one.

“My audience in Nashville, where I was doing my concerts, literally cut in three-quarters,” Dillinger says. “I used to say it cut in half, but it was really three-quarters. I went from being able to fill a room to begging people to come again.”

Teresa Hairston of Gospel Today says cases like Dillinger’s are an unfortunate reality.

The piece also features Jennifer Knapp (pictured) and Yvette Flunder. You can read Person’s article here.

LISTEN: Austra’s ‘Olympia’

NPR has posted a First Listen of Austra’s second release, Olympia. If it’s anything like their phenomenal 2011 release Feel It Break, expect good things. That album was legendary and only set the bar high for this sophomore effort.

From NPR.com:

Over time, Austra has expanded from a core trio — with bandleader [Katie] Stelmanis joined by percussionist Maya Postepski and bassist Dorian Wolf — to a sextet, and its sound has naturally become bigger and busier. In the process, that’s meant letting some of the spare, arty mystery of 2011’s Polaris Prize-nominated Feel It Break give way to the bombastic throb of Olympia, out June 18. But the new album still showcases Stelmanis’ massive voice and increasingly personal lyrics in style, keeping one foot in the conservatory even as both are occupied on the dance floor.

Do yourself a favor and check out Break as well.