Country Proud is a country music–focused showcase series from RNBW, a collective of Nashville’s LGBTQ+ performers, songwriters, and musicians founded in 2016 with the goal of creating an inclusive space for all music lovers. During this program, Country Proud co-founders Emily and Jamie Dryburgh and performers Shelly Fairchild, Angie K, Sonia Leigh, and Adam Mac will discuss the organization’s history, goals, and impact, as well as their experiences as queer artists in country music. Raised in a musical family in Jackson, Mississippi, Shelly Fairchild is working on her first album for the independent record label Kill Rock Stars, nearly twenty years after she was signed to Columbia Records in 2004 and earned a Top Forty single with her song “You Don’t Lie Here Anymore.” She has sung background vocals for Eric Church, Randy Rogers Band, Tanya Tucker, and others, and has had her songs appear in television shows including American Ninja Warrior, Grey’s Anatomy, and Love Island. Angie K, who was born in El Salvador and moved to Georgia with her family as a child, competed on the TV singing competition The Voice in 2016, which drew the attention of Jake Owen and his team, who convinced Angie to move to Nashville and helped fund her 2020 single “Real Talk,” sung in both English and Spanish. She is part of CMT’s 2023 Next Women of Country class and was named a Highway Find by the SiriusXM channel The Highway in 2020. Sonia Leigh wrote Zac Brown Band’s #1 singles “Goodbye in Her Eyes” and “Sweet Annie” and has written songs featured in the television show The Good Wife, the movie Queen Pins, and the video game The Sims. The Georgia native released a new single, “Thin Ice,” in February and was previously signed as a solo artist to Zac Brown’s Southern Ground Artists record label, but she also works in the hip-hop space as ELVYN:ELYVN and is part of the grunge-pop act Rob the Man. Adam Mac, originally from Russellville, Kentucky, but living in Nashville since 2012, has been described by People as “country music’s very own Elton John with a little Dua Lipa mixed in.” The music video for his song “Disco Cowboy”—the title track of his sophomore album, due out this summer—premiered with CMT and was the #1 video on its 12-Pack Countdown for two consecutive weeks in 2022. Country Proud Co-Founders Emily and Jamie Dryburgh and the Museum’s Angela Stefano Zimmer will host this program. Ford Theater. Included with Museum admission. Program ticket required. Free to Museum members.