(C) Daily Yonder - Keep it Rural
This story was originally published by Daily Yonder - Keep it Rural and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Clover-Lynn’s Appalachian Gothic [1]

['Lane Wendell Fischer', 'The Daily Yonder', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width', 'Vertical-Align Bottom .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar']

Date: 2025-02-20

Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy, a newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, retrospectives, recommendations, and more. You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article to receive future editions in your inbox

Clover-Lynn’s music isn’t just about honoring tradition — it’s about honoring life’s transformations.

Her banjo-driven sound, rooted in the deep red clay of Southwest Virginia, weaves together the ghosts of bluegrass past with a defiantly modern, trans and queer perspective. With a voice that’s equal parts tender and unyielding, Clover-Lynn is carving out a space in country and folk music that challenges expectations while remaining deeply tied to place.

The Appalachian artist’s first recording project, the pithy EP “County Traditions,” blends together traditional folk tunes like “John Brown’s Dream” and “Little Maggie” with original music like the murder-ballad “Daddy’s First Son” (listed as “Oh (Field Recording)” on the EP). Clover-Lynn has described the latter tune as the “most country goth queer song that could have ever been written.” Fashioned as a haunting bluegrass murder-ballad, the song serves as an allegory for Clover-Lynn’s experience as a trans woman having to kill the male identity that had been thrust upon her as a child.

“Oh tell me Daddy, can you ever forgive,” she sings. “The death of your son, so your daughter could live?”

I sat down with Clover-Lynn to discuss the experiences in rural Virginia that ground her, the spirited perspective that drives her, and where she’s headed next in her musical journey.

Slow Embrace

Clover-Lynn first stumbled into music about five years ago, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. She’d grown up surrounded by bluegrass and old-time music, but initially resisted it.

“This shit’s for my Granny and Papa,” she said, describing her old notions.

But after moving away from home, Clover-Lynn felt suddenly inundated by harmful stereotypes from folks who misunderstood her background, misconceptions that Clover-Lynn herself admittedly held about the place and people she called home. She started listening again to the folk music that felt like home. “I decided to embrace where I was from,” she told me. “I love Southwest Virginia. I love being from the Blue Ridge Mountains.” That love led her to pick up a banjo for the first time, one she purchased while visiting a local music store back in Virginia. The banjo reconnected her to home and inspired her to move back. “Here I am thinking that my family’s a bunch of hillbillies and they don’t understand me,” she said. “Since moving back, they understand me more than anybody. They are the best people.” Photo Credit: Sadie Petitt (@sadielynnpetitt on Instagram).

Clover-Lynn didn’t think anyone in her family played music. For years, she hounded her grandpa, asking if he’d ever played. Until one day she stumbled upon him strumming a little tune. “Well,” he sheepishly replied. “Maybe I picked a little guitar back in the day.”

Clover-Lynn began to appreciate the knowledge and wisdom her Granny and Papa passed down, from family recipes to old stories about her family, who lived as sharecroppers in the region for more than 275 years. “If you put it all together,” she said. “There’s books that aren’t as good as that.”

Reinvention

When it comes to musical influence, Clover-Lynn draws specifically from Southwest Virginia bluegrass traditions. “My main inspiration has always been other Southwest Virginian banjo players like Ralph Stanley, Sammy Shelor, and Rudy Lyle.”

That approach highlights the specificity of bluegrass styles within Appalachia, pushing back against the idea that the region is a singular, uniform culture. “I want everyone to be able to relate to it, but I want people from Southwest Virginia to see themselves and their own experiences in my songs,” she said. “All good music starts with this love of place.”

Clover-Lynn’s regional pride is paired with a deep understanding of the tensions that come with being trans and queer in a rural space. “My music is first and foremost for queer people from rural areas who feel like they don’t always have the ability to be where they’re from or feel like they belong where they’re from,” she said. “You’re from where you’re from, and no one can take that from you, no matter how hard they try.” While her music is undeniably rooted in tradition, it also carries a distinctly gothic sensibility. Clover-Lynn resists simplistic definitions of gothic music, pushing beyond the macabre, minor-key stylings often associated with the label. Instead, she describes it as something that makes you feel “uneasy, but also at home.”

It’s an apt description for her work, which balances the warmth of banjo rolls with lyrics that confront the unease of being seen as an outsider. “To feel off-kilter but also at home — I think that’s how my music is supposed to make you feel,” she said. “And at the same time, I think that’s how being a queer person from the rural South feels, too.”

That duality — between belonging and alienation, tradition and reinvention — is what makes Clover-Lynn’s music so compelling. She isn’t just preserving the sounds of the past; she’s reshaping them to fit a new reality, one where the gothic, the queer, and the Appalachian can exist together without contradiction. And in doing so, she’s offering a new vision of what folk and country music can be.

Clover-Lynn’s first EP “County Traditions,” recorded with the group “Laurel Hill Ramblers,” can be found on Spotify and other music streaming platforms. She is currently recording with a newly formed group, “Clover-Lynn and The Hellfires.”

This article first appeared in The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, recommendations, retrospectives, and more. Join the mailing list today to have future editions delivered straight to your inbox.

Related

Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://dailyyonder.com/clover-lynn-appalachian-gothic/2025/02/20/

Published and (C) by Daily Yonder - Keep it Rural
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 International.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailyyonder/