Picture it–you're dressed in bedazzled western wear with your friends, crossing the threshold of a dark dive, and the first thing you hear is the ethereal voice of Chicago's queer country crooner Andrew Sa.

That’s what it’s like to walk into the quarterly Cosmic Country Showcase. This raucous troupe wrastles the genre of Americana music from stodgy old “heads” to redefine it as a campy, soulful, and joyous experience. The Cosmic Country Showcase is a reclamation of a culture that for too long has felt so alien to folks who didn’t see themselves reflected in the Americana landscape. The players are self-aware, queer-leaning, and free to just enjoy a music that highlights great vocalists singing together and musicians pushing themselves to make familiar arrangements feel exciting and new.

This playlist is a masterful companion to your journey to the joyful, unique, and often psychedelic experience to hear the full scope of country music. There’s a great tradition in country music to play on standards and that’s everywhere in this playlist; like soul producer and singer Eli “Paperboy” Reed’s interpretation of “Mama Tried”, Miko Mark’s soulful take on Willie Nelson’s “Whiskey River”, and the mouthful of a hook Ronnie Milsap’s “(I’m a) Stand By Your Woman Man” and answer to Tammy Wynette’s hit song. There are some shimmering originals on here too, the 80’s gloss on “Tumbleweed” is a long-lost hit for this disco-meets-country artist Sylvia, and Erin Rae’s irony-free “True Love’s Face” is a wonderfully arranged new psychedelic Americana hit.

If you’re able to free your inhibitions and preconceptions about the genre, a cheesy-as-hell song about a tumbleweed will dissolve you into the greater cosmos and ascend to the world of Cosmic Country.