The April Follies Same-Sex Dancesport Classic was featured on a channel 7 news broadcast. This year’s April Follies took place on April 26 and is the largest and longest-running same-sex dance competition in North America. Sundance Saloon regulars will recognize some of the participants in the video and the news article.
Full article here: Same-sex Ballroom Dancing Popular In Bay Area
Warm up dancing to our winter selection of current music. Here’s a list of the top 30 current country-western dance songs you might hear at Sundance Saloon. These are arranged in alphabetical order by artist. Enjoy!
| Gonna Know We Were Here | Jason Aldean | video |
| Tonight Looks Good On You | Jason Aldean | video |
| Young & Crazy | Frankie Ballard | video |
| Dibs | Kelsea Ballerini | video |
| Gentle On My Mind | Band Perry | video |
| Stay A Little Longer | Brothers Osbourne | video |
| Little Bit Of You | Chase Bryant | video |
| Baby Believe | Kristy Lee Cook | audio |
| Nothin' Like You | Dan + Shay | video |
| Lose My Mind | Brett Eldredge | video |
| Shut Up And Fish | Maddie & Tae | video |
| Better Than You Left Me | Mickey Guyton | video |
| We Went | Randy Houser | audio |
| House Party | Sam Hunt | video |
| Boomerang | Jana Kramer | audio |
| Steal Me Away | Olivia Lane | video |
| I Love This Life | Locash Cowboys | video |
| Southern Belle | Scotty McCreery | video |
| Humble And Kind | Tim McGraw | video |
| Have You Ever Seen The Rain | Allison Moorer | audio |
| Unlove You | Jennifer Nettles | audio |
| Love Her For A While | Sam Outlaw | audio |
| Snapback | Old Dominion | audio |
| Gonna Get Burned | Rachel Potter | audio |
| Die A Happy Man | Thomas Rhett | video |
| Sangria | Blake Shelton | video |
| It Takes All Kinds | George Strait | audio |
| Let Me See Ya Girl | Cole Swindell | video |
| Break On Me | Keith Urban | audio |
| Homegrown | Zac Brown Band | video |
Sundance Saloon brought some liveliness to the Jane Warner Plaza at Castro & Market in San Francisco. After being rained out the previous two Saturdays, we finally had some nice weather with partly cloudy skies and none of the wet stuff.
We had another very fun and festive Holiday Ball on December 13 at Sundance Saloon in San Francisco, featuring the many traditions that have come to define this event. This year we were able to capture the indoor snowfall during the Barn Dance on video (see above)! The flurries start at around 1:45.
In addition we collected dozens of toys for Mama’s Toy Drive, ultimately destined for Sunburst Projects, the SFPD, and other locations. Santa made his customary appearance. Everyone got lei’d while dancing to Mele Kalimaka. The dancing cowboy Santa toy wiggled his hips all night long. And we presented the checks to the beneficiaries of the Sundance Stompede which raised $21,892 this year.
… and here’s a nice Facebook post from earlier in the month:
We’re late! This is our autumn list, and though it’s feeling like winter in San Francisco as the rainy season begins, it’s still technically autumn. Here’s a list of the top 30 current country-western dance songs you might hear at Sundance Saloon. These are arranged in alphabetical order by artist. Enjoy!
| Gonna Know We Were Here | Jason Aldean | video |
| Tonight Looks Good On You | Jason Aldean | video |
| Young & Crazy | Frankie Ballard | video |
| Gentle On My Mind | Band Perry | video |
| Stay A Little Longer | Brothers Osbourne | video |
| Little Bit Of You | Chase Bryant | video |
| Rest Of Forever | Jason Cassidy | audio |
| Baby Believe | Kristy Lee Cook | audio |
| Nothin' Like You | Dan + Shay | video |
| Lose My Mind | Brett Eldredge | video |
| It's On Tonight | Gloriana | audio |
| Better Than You Left Me | Mickey Guyton | video |
| We Went | Randy Houser | audio |
| You Never Know | Alan Jackson | audio |
| Boomerang | Jana Kramer | audio |
| Steal Me Away | Olivia Lane | video |
| Pain Killer | Little Big Town | video |
| I Love This Life | Locash Cowboys | video |
| Southern Belle | Scotty McCreery | video |
| I'm To Blame | Kip Moore | video |
| Have You Ever Seen The Rain | Allison Moorer | audio |
| Love Her For A While | Sam Outlaw | audio |
| Already Callin' You Mine | Parmalee | video |
| Gonna Get Burned | Rachel Potter | audio |
| Sangria | Blake Shelton | video |
| Lonely Tonight | Blake Shelton f Ashley Monroe | video |
| It Takes All Kinds | George Strait | audio |
| Let Me See Ya Girl | Cole Swindell | video |
| Break On Me | Keith Urban | audio |
| Homegrown | Zac Brown Band | video |
We’re back after a few months’ hiatus with a look at a groundbreaking video for the Brothers Osbourne song “Stay A Little Longer” which recently broke into the top 10 in the Billboard country music charts. While the lyrics are not specifically gay-themed, the video features a gay couple among the five couples going through various stages of a relationship. The video does not shy away from displaying passion and tenderness among each of the couples, treating the same-sex couple no differently from the others. For a genre that leans particularly conservative, this is perhaps the first time such raw same-sex emotion is viewed in a country mainstream video, and so naturally to boot. There’s a great article in Rolling Stones magazine about the video.
Interestingly there hasn’t been a controversy about this (yet), like there was about Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush,” which was feared by some in conservative circles to have a lesbian theme. (It doesn’t). Some radio stations were reluctant to play it, but the song eventually reached #3 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart anyway. Interestingly, “Girl Crush” spent a record-breaking 13 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart which factors in a combination of airplay, downloads and streaming.
Certainly Kacey Musgraves’ “Follow Your Arrow” also suffered a lack of radio airplay because of its explicit acceptance of same-sex attraction, among other concerns. The song only reached #43 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart despite winning the Song of the Year award at the 2014 Country Music Association awards. Go figure.
Possibly the first mainstream country song with a positive (or at least neutral) gay subtheme was “Whatever Gets You Through The Night,” recorded by Mel McDaniel in 1985, and also by Waylon Jennings. This song was just an obscure track on a popular album (“Stand Up”), but it was a staple for years at the old gay country-western bar Rawhide 2 in San Francisco. You may even hear it occasionally 30 years later at Sundance Saloon.
^IY
Here’s an informal list of the top 30 current country-western dance songs you might hear at Sundance Saloon. (It’s been a while since we’ve posted a music list. We’ll be doing this quarterly instead of monthly, as there sometimes hasn’t been a lot of change from month to month.) These are arranged in alphabetical order by artist. Enjoy!
| Tonight Looks Good On You | Jason Aldean | video |
| Young & Crazy | Frankie Ballard | video |
| Gentle On My Mind | Band Perry | video |
| Roller Coaster | Luke Bryan | video |
| Rest Of Forever | Jason Cassidy | audio |
| Baby Believe | Kristy Lee Cook | audio |
| Mean To Me | Brett Eldredge | video |
| Lose My Mind | Brett Eldredge | video |
| It's On Tonight | Gloriana | audio |
| Better Than You Left Me | Mickey Guyton | video |
| You Never Know | Alan Jackson | audio |
| Drunk Americans | Toby Keith | video |
| Long Stretch Of Love | Lady Antebellum | video |
| Steal Me Away | Olivia Lane | video |
| Crazy Too | Lucy Angel | video |
| I'm To Blame | Kip Moore | video |
| Biscuits | Kacey Musgraves | audio |
| Dime Store Cowgirl | Kacey Musgraves | audio |
| Have You Ever Seen The Rain | Allison Moorer | audio |
| Somewhere Tonight | James Otto | video |
| Love Her For A While | Sam Outlaw | audio |
| Mississippi Flood | Hayden Panetierre | audio |
| Gonna Get Burned | Rachel Potter | audio |
| Make Me Wanna | Thomas Rhett | video |
| Lonely Tonight | Blake Shelton f Ashley Monroe | video |
| Sangria | Blake Shelton | video |
| Lay Low | Josh Turner | video |
| Wildfire | Aaron Watson | audio |
| Homegrown | Zac Brown Band | video |
| Loving You Easy | Zac Brown Band | video |
Sundance Saloon was featured in public radio station KALW’s “Sound of the Week.” During the first week of August KALW (91.7-FM) broadcast a sound excerpt recorded at Sundance Saloon and asked listeners to identify what it was and where it was recorded.
The reveal at 5:00 pm on August 6, 2015 included a very nice audio article about Sundance Saloon, including interviews with Chris Baines, Joyce Gagnon, and Neeraj Sharma.
Listen to the KALW’s full story here:
http://kalw.org/post/audiograph-s-sound-week-sundance-saloon
/IY
Sundance Saloon spent an amazing day on a glorious weekend at the San Francisco Pride Festival in the Civic Center on June 28, 2015. Coming on the heels of the historic Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage, the City was ablaze in celebration all weekend long. We two-stepped and line-danced our way through the weekend, with dance events Saturday night at the Whitcomb Hotel, Sunday all day at the Civic Center, and then Sunday night again back at the Whitcomb.
Lots more photos here: http://sundance.zenfolio.com/sfpride2015
Sundance Saloon was featured in a detailed article in Hoodline, a prolific blog dedicated to San Francisco neighborhood news. The article appeared on Monday, June 15, and covers our range of activities, history and culture.
See the full article here:
Meet The Sundance Association, A Unique Country-Western Dancing Club
