Sam Rise and Ortlieb’s Queer Country Night expand Philly’s music scene

If Philadelphia singer-songwriter Sam Rise is about something beyond line-blurring, genre-jumping music, it’s creating a communal vibe among local artists and audiences.

To that end, Rise will cohost Baby’s First Rodeo’s Queer Country Night at Ortlieb’s Lounge on Saturday, Feb. 18. Presented by Sip City Mixer and cohosted by Britanny Ann Tranbough, the evening will feature fellow songwriters Jobi Riccio and Daisy James, DJs, line dance instructions and more.

“More” being the optimal word when it comes to Rise’s sense of all-in inclusion.

Connecting the dots between life as a musician—which includes a debut recording, ‘Brighter Days’, released as four EP installments—to Queer Country Night, Rise arrived in Philadelphia from her native Wisconsin and addresses across the United States.

“Philadelphia has gravitational pull for me,” she says.

It’s not just music that ties her to Philly, but rather its racial makeup and issues of equity and accountability that make it tick.

“Philadelphia is a seat of community care, of principle and collaborative practice – in its music, its social justice organizing and community leadership. People here are imagining new ways of exploring, of being. I live for that energy.”

After having performed in theater and jazz bands in her youth, Rise wrote and performed her own songs as her primary medium to “reckon with the troubles” of Black and female injustice.

“I was trying to make sense of my own experiences and healing… exploring new paths forward as a Black person… and my emerging understanding of my queerness,” says Rise. “Expressing myself unapologetically and joyfully is actually the best way to change the world… especially in collaboration.”

Philadelphia is the place where music first truly happened for Rise, with self-written songs becoming “creative containers” where we “could reconcile grief and hurt, to grow and evolve…. There are songs of mine about unrequited love, and others about taking heart and reaching for your friends, rather than distracting yourself.”

As for “songcatching,” Rise says it is a matter of making oneself freely available and open to every idea that could ever guide a melody or a lyric.

“You have to credit the song itself as a contributor to its own creation,” she says. “Some are stubborn and slow-in-coming, others come right away. Tom Waits used to talk about driving fast in California on the interstate, having a song come to him, and telling it to go away until he could get somewhere to write it down properly. If not, go away. Songs are living things. Acknowledge their live-ness. Creativity is unruly by nature, so rather than imagine myself in a box, I am in a garden – and let it be weedy and overgrown.”

Bored by genre constraints, it is odd that Rise finds comfort in country music. And yet she does, especially in collaboration with Baby’s First Rodeo’s cosmic country party planners, Jen and Allie, and a scene that they have been growing for some time.

“This is crucial to me as I have found my own deep roots and connection to country music,” says Rise. “Black American music IS country music. Also, as I become more aware of my queerness… country music is inherently queer. Campy, Draggy. It makes explicit the implicit. It’s always pushing boundaries. I think the women in country music have always sung the songs that you weren’t allowed to sing. There’s also this incredible moment in country music now where queer artists are unapologetic about who they are. At that intersection, it has been delightful to claim that space, and encourage it inside Philly’s scene.”

To that end, Rise and her sister in queer country, Britanny Ann Tranbough, will present some of the best local and national queer country.

“And this won’t be the last time you’ll see this. The music scene in Philly needs and deserves a Queer Country Night such as this.”

For information and tickets, visit ortliebsphilly.com