Country Music Breaks My Heart Detail Page

Country Music Breaks My Heart is the first song I wrote on the new album. I wanted to encapsulate the feeling of both belonging and not belonging that I felt when I decided to leave country music almost twenty-years ago. I no longer wanted to perform in spaces where many of my friends may not feel safe and included.

I have since met many people from lots of backgrounds who feel connected to country music. The song turned out to be an invitation for country music to be open to anyone who it resonates with. If you look at gender, race and sexualities of award nominees at the CCMA’s or the Country Album Of the Year at the Junos, the country music establishment in Canada still has a long way to go as far as inclusion.

In the film, the mechanical bull symbolic of the precarious dissonance I feel as a Disabled, trans person from a working-class Alberta background (with respect for 2S trans and/or non-binary elders and consideration for the ongoing colonial legacy that I benefit from as a white settler). Staying on the bull is representative of the enduring truth that gender diverse people have always and will always be present. I wanted to create something that folks younger than me could witness. I came out as trans twenty-five years ago when visible elders were not as common. The current provincial government and geo-political attacks on human rights for gender diverse people are not new. There is no possible way to stop gender diverse people from existing. We will fight to take care of each other as we always have.

 I’ve been a huge fan of FOREIGNERZ for years. It was important to me that it was made with other people from Treaty 7 territory who prioritize expressing the experiences of under-represented people on the prairies. Their community building approach made filming Country Music Breaks My Heart feel wonderfully collaborative. Their world-class production team encapsulated what I was hoping to portray with astounding imagery.”