Nashville-based artist Abby Nissenbaum just released her sharp, funny new single "Gentleman" alongside her sophomore album 'Want To Be Wrong,' and it flips country radio's dream cowboy fantasy on its head, offering herself as the alternative to men who talk big and deliver little.
Produced by Martin Trevox with Fede Catenaro, the track blends the 80s and 90s country pop instincts of The Chicks, Reba McEntire, and Melissa Etheridge with a modern indie sensibility, and its Oceanna Colgan-directed video swaps out the genre's usual tractor-and-beer imagery for Nissenbaum on a tennis court instead.
Beyond the music, Nissenbaum is an out lesbian artist and vocal advocate for LGBTQ rights and sexual violence prevention, partnering with organizations like the Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence, and brings that same perspective and empathy, shaped in part by her prior career as a sexual violence prevention researcher, into everything she writes.
I had a chance to interview her to learn more.
What surprised you most about getting into the music scene?
The sheer amount of funding needed to fully produce and market each song, let alone an entire album! Touring, and even performing local shows, are also massive financial undertakings. It's a privilege to be able to perform live at all.
How does your previous work with sexual violence prevention and LGBTQ advocacy shape your music writing?
I find that it helps me approach those topics with sensitivity, empathy, and just having the actual language to describe different phenomena.
What's fun about questioning some of the stereotypical themes found in country music?
I've been having fun writing counterpoints to stereotypical country music themes, and especially couching them in a New England landscape. Southern country is filled with beers, trucks, and Friday night lights while New England country is perhaps hard cider, a Subaru, and a leaf peeping drive.
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