Queer Delights: Garrison Starr to debut new album "Girl I Used To Be" with virtual record release

Singer/songwriter Garrison Starr has been producing genre-defying music since the late-90s. Her new album Girl I Used to Be gets to the heart of her evangelical upbringing in Mississippi. Starr was recently featured in People, talking about growing up gay in a conservative Christian home and how it affected her as an artist and a person. Debut single "Devil in Me" laments a youth spent hiding who she was.

My own queer coming of age involved Starr's music, particularly her 2002 album Songs From Take Off to Landing. I spent many a day plunking out chords and working to find my voice while being inspired by musicians like Garrison Starr. I even ran into Starr once at a bar in Brooklyn in the mid-aughts. While I can't imagine she would recall the evening, it was a memorable one for me. She was kind and thoughtful and asked many questions about my life, and let me gush about how much her music had meant to me. She comes across much like her music: genuine, tender-hearted, and confident.

A little bit country, a lot rock and roll, Starr's music falls somewhere in the "Americana" sphere. While her songs have appeared in movies and television shows like Grey's Anatomy and Nashville, she's not yet been given the platform that some of her peers like Brandi Carlile and Patty Griffin have. Hopefully, this new album will help push Starr further into the singer/songwriter stratosphere where she belongs.

The album Girl I Used to Be comes out on March 5th, and Starr is having a virtual record release on March 11th. Admission is $11.30, a small price to pay for an evening of music, especially after the pandemic has all but stolen a year of arts and culture from us and income from the musicians we love.