Andrew Sa

Andrew Sa’s ever-evolving relationships with his collaborators, the city of Chicago, and his own songwritership paved the way for this sparkling debut, American Rough, an intimate, aching, sweet-toned showcase of country-colored indie-folk songs. Longitudinal and poetic, American Rough is a cinematic portal into Sa’s relationships with men, the city, and his own pulsing heart. We’re led graciously from room to room, introduced to vulnerable characters navigating the complicated dance of masculinity as it’s brought to its most tenuous limits. Sa’s evocative poetry and hypnotic, sultry, lilt captivate and charm, held together throughout by producer H.C. McEntire’s pristine and resplendent musical production recalling Roy Orbison, Randy Newman, Waylon Jennings, and the Everly Brothers. What Sa so gracefully and deliciously accomplishes here and across American Rough is a confident and shameless subversion of the heternormative tradition of mid-century country-pop and songbird soul – horniness is nothing new to these genres, but through the mirrored glint of gay male desire, Sa invites a reimagining of the kind of intimacy worth singing about. And it is an invitation – an outstretched hand to us, the listeners, letting us in on the secret. A whisper and wink. A cheeky peeling back of the curtain. Part of Sa’s hope in this ambitious debut is to tell a story of queer love that other people can see themselves in and not immediately deny because of its queerness.