Out country artist Drake Jensen arrives in Texas — finally — to headline at the Texas Bear Round Up
SILVER BULLET | Although Canadian, Jensen knows Texas is the epicenter of country music, so performing here is a feather in his Stetson. (Photo by Jonathan Edwards/Convidae Studio)
RICH LOPEZ | Contributing Writer
getrichindallas@gmail.com
At age 40, what Drake Jensen thought was going to be a backburner project turned into an actual career move. He recorded an album, and then another, and before he knew it, “recording artist” was being used to describe him. Now, the openly gay singer finds himself a staple in the LGBT continuum as one of the pioneering voices of queer country music. (It’s not just Chely Wright, guys.)
With two albums under his Texas-sized belt buckle and a healthy calendar of performances booked, Jensen is a bona fide working musician. He’s performed throughout his native Canada and the U.S., worked in Nashville. But for a country singer, there’s one milestone he has yet to achieve: He hasn’t performed in Texas.
That item gets crossed off his dream (not bucket) list this weekend, when he headlines at the signature dinner during the Texas Bear Round Up, which appropriately enough, this year is themed Cowboys and Bears (which Jensen is plainly both). And he’s thrilled by the prospect.
“When the career got to a certain point, I knew I wanted to play there,” he says. “I mean it’s the heart of country music, and when I was asked to perform, it was a huge thing for me — and an honor as a Canadian country music artist. When I put that out there in the universe, and then they came to me, it was fantastic.”
Garnering accolades didn’t always come easily. He had to endure many people advising against his coming out if he wanted a serious career. He ignored them and came out in the middle of his 2011 debut CD On My Way To Finding You. By the time he recorded 2012’s Outlaw, he was blatantly, “can’t-hide-behind-vague-pronouns” out.
“I am who I am, and if [people] don’t like it, thanks but [they can] go somewhere else,” he says.
He almost needn’t have worried. The album “did really well and put me in a different place,” Jensen says. “Outlaw was the point where I was doing this for me, turned my back on everyone who told me to stay in the closet, and it sent me in a completely different direction.”
Like most iconic artists, what Jensen does is greater than merely recording music; he proudly puts a bear image out there beyond a scruffy twink or a hypermasculine bearded athlete. Jensen is proudly a 40something gay man with a dense forest of un-ironic salt-and-pepper whiskers, a hairy chest proudly on display with a burly, fit but overall normal build. He’s handsome but accessible. And mostly, he’s a bear.
“I’m a very different kind of artist. I’m 44, I’m not a size-30 waist, I have a grey beard and I’m not typically the image on a billboard,” he says. “But it’s an image lots of men my age relate to.
Some people try to knock some pictures I take, but I create images that are provoking. I know what I like to see, and I try to bring some of that into my own art.”
The look and sound work together and create a healthy brand. His songs are truthful about his attentions. And while idealized in his branding, that rugged look is also who he is. Jensen is a fisherman, an outdoorsman, a singer. Perhaps he didn’t see himself in this role a decade ago, but with age comes wisdom — and he’s using it.
“Everybody grows every day and if you stop, you’re dead. At 40, I took a leap of faith, and I unknowingly went down a road where I didn’t know what was going to happen. Now I’m doing what I love to do. Every day I get to live that.”
While Jensen enjoys the attention his music and work brings, he strives to be genuine and keep his humility intact. He doesn’t want to be on some pedestal created by his fans. He wants to be only a storyteller. Every once in a while, though, he will succumb to some positive reinforcement.
“Someone did call me the ‘Daddy of Country Music,’” he says. “I’ll take that! It’s kinda hot.”
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition March 14, 2014.