Published by
The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times
SEATTLE — It’s been a long time coming. Then again, nothing in Patrick Haggerty’s history-making music career has come fast or easy. As the 78-year-old artist and activist tells it, having an actual career in music seemed doomed from the second the country singer and his band Lavender Country released what’s now considered the first gay-themed country album in 1973. Released four years after the Stonewall uprising, its out-and-proud songs didn’t find much of an audience beyond the Seattle gay liberation activists who heard it or saw Lavender Country play small local shows, including the first …