Andrew Sa expands the cowboy myth on ‘American Rough’

Country music is full of self-styled renegades, outlaws and cowboys — hypermasculine characters who are rough around the edges. Men like that populate Andrew Sa’s debut album, American Rough. But instead of inhabiting that persona himself, Sa makes those men the objects of his desire.

Sa grew up in California’s Bay Area, where he’d perform what he calls “sad Patsy Cline songs” at his mom’s karaoke business to warm up the crowd. He now lives in Chicago, where he’s been called the city’s “premier queer country crooner.”

Today, Sa talks about the tension between who you are and who you fall in love with. He talks about love songs and the queer artists who’ve influenced him, and Sa performs live.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.