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‘Lez Dance’: Loamlands’ Sophomore Album Is A Tribute To Southern Queerness

The album cover featuers a hand gripping a chin and neck.
Courtesy of Loamlands
Loamlands released their sophomore album 'Lez Dance' in June.

Durham-based, local legend Kym Register, who performs as Loamlands, returns this summer with their sophomore album “Lez Dance.”

Register’s band Loamlands became a solo act after Will Hackney left the project, which made room for Register to take total creative control. The album delves into themes of identity and personal relationships under the umbrella of queer Southern folk. Register is gender nonbinary and uses “Lez Dance” to confront internalized homophobia. They channel artists like Soni Wolf and k.d. lang to honor the queer musicians who came before them. Minimal instrumentation on the album puts Register’s voice at the center of every track.

Host Frank Stasio talks to Register about the creative process behind producing their first solo work. Loamlands will join Lee Baines III and The Glory Fires on tour in October starting at Register’s bar The Pinhook in downtown Durham on October 17. They will also be performing at Durham pride on September 28.

Josie Taris left her home in Fayetteville in 2014 to study journalism at Northwestern University. There, she took a class called Journalism of Empathy and found her passion in audio storytelling. She hopes every story she produces challenges the audience's preconceptions of the world. After spending the summer of 2018 working in communications for a Chicago nonprofit, she decided to come home to work for the station she grew up listening to. When she's not working, Josie is likely rooting for the Chicago Cubs or petting every dog she passes on the street.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.