For being known as “the love that dare not speak its name”, gay romance is sure getting a lot of exposure lately. And that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, as 2013 has been a landmark year for the LGBT community. The Defense of Marriage Act is DEAD, America has its first openly gay active NBA player, and songs like Macklemore’s Same Love are burning up the charts.
So it’s time for you to meet the next big musical hit-maker on the subject.
Not exactly sure if he’s known as a Country artist, but I have to salute Chicago singer/songwriter Steve Grand on taking a grand chance with the genre. His efforts have resulted in a song and video that are taking YouTube by storm, and for good reason. What’s depicted here in song and image isn’t just an American love story, but it’s in fact a universal one, and is as old as time. The video was uploaded on July 2nd, and as of today has already garnered more than 1.2 million views. Here’s more from Michael Cidoni Lennox of the Huffington Post…
He’s a musician without a record label, a card holder without any remaining credit. And the gig that supplies what he calls “food money” may now be in jeopardy.
But after events of the last week, Steve Grand said “I would die a happy man today,” and not for the reasons he’s suddenly getting attention.
Grand’s first music video, for his country-tinged rock ballad “All-American Boy,” was posted on YouTube last Tuesday. By last night, it had exploded, attracting more than 400,000 total views — nothing for top-charting videos from big-name recording artists, but an impressive figure for one from a complete unknown whose only promotion has been internet buzz.
The video cost just $7,000, a fraction of the major-names’ going rate, but it was a fortune to Grand, who came up with the entire budget himself by maxing out his only plastic to tell the video’s story.
“All-American Boy” portrays a young gay man who misreads signals from an apparently straight “all-American” male friend. On a day hanging out with the gang, the two guys and a girl take off in a car. She drives, as the guys sit together in the back, with the straight man, at one point, falling asleep on the gay man’s shoulder. Feeling like a third wheel, the girl eventually, angrily drives off, leaving the two men to pal around in the woods, where they end up stripping down and going skinny-dipping — even sharing a quick kiss. Ultimately for the straight guy, it was just all in good fun. But for the gay man, it was something much more significant, and he is left dazed, confused and longing.
I for one am really glad he maxed out those cards, as this is a story that needs to be heard and is long overdue.