If you want to hear new music from Kesha, I have two very important updates for you: The first is that her latest song “Tennessee” is a collaboration with none other than queer country icon Orville Peck. The second is that the track plays over the final sequence of a documentary short about LGBTQ+ line dancing (!) that you should absolutely watch.
Stud Country, the recently released short doc from the Los Angeles Times directed by Lina Abascal and Alexandra Kern, follows the eponymous queer country western line dancing event, which was founded in Los Angeles in 2021 and has since expanded to multiple cities across the U.S. (I recently had the privilege of attending a Stud Country event in New York at which Kesha herself made an appearance, and never have I felt more yee-haw than I did while watching people tap their cowboy boots to “We R Who We R.”)
For now, the Kesha-Peck collab “Tennessee” is only available at the end of the L.A. Times short doc, which you can watch below:
The track finds Kesha singing about living a life full of “hijinks” but still getting into heaven because she’s “on Dolly’s list” — a reference, of course, to country legend and renowned LGBTQ+ ally Dolly Parton. Peck joins her on the chorus as they sing together: “My obituary better say / ‘Damn, she left a damn good legacy.’” Hudson Mawke, most recently of Brat fame, and queer singer-songwriter Tayla Parx, who co-wrote “Thank U, Next” also collaborated on the deliciously twangy track.
And if that song whets your appetite for more Kesha, you won’t have to wait very long for more. The “TiK ToK” singer’s new track “Joy Ride” comes out July 4, as she recently teased on Instagram. Kesha making country music and dropping singles on Independence Day? God bless America indeed.
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