Julien Baker and Torres, “Send a Prayer My Way.”

Neither Julien Baker nor Torres (Mackenzie Scott) came up as country musicians. Baker played in Memphis punk bands before making a name for herself as an open-hearted singer-songwriter and then one-third of supergroup boygenius. Georgia native Torres is garage rock artist. Yet a chance encounter led to the two playing a country song at a show and making promises to record an album.

The album turned into Send A Prayer My Way, which the two describe as a love letter to the music on which they grew up, but made for people—the queer community—often mocked or ignored by the genre. The goal was country songs in which they could see themselves.

The end result is subtle. It’s not strictly country, with folky flourishes and the open-sky, open-road Americana storytelling. It’s not as raucous as the high points of Torres’ last couple albums, including 2021’s Thirstier, nor as sonically expansive as Baker’s solo work. Songs like “Bottom of the Bottle” and “Downhill Both Ways” meander along with the help of finger-plucked acoustic guitars, banjo accents and weaving steel guitar strains.

Its strengths lie in the messages.

“And if I could only go back in time/ I’d rewrite our whole story,” Scott sings on “Tuesday,” a song about a past relationship in her youth that ended after the other girl’s mom got wind about her “wrong persuasion.” “And now I know that your shame was not mine/ And I am perfect in my Lord’s eyes.”

“Tuesday,” the name of the other girl and the song then zooms out onto the the guilt and shame shoved onto queer youths. By the end, Torres’ perspective is one that comes with time: “With this exorcism I put our story to bed/ And one more thing: If you ever hear this song/ Tell your mama she can go suck an egg.”

Baker and Scott take turns with lead and harmony, the husky voice of the latter and crystalline delivery of the former blending seamlessly together. “‘It can’t get much worse’ depends on who you’re askin’,” Baker notes at the start of “Showdown.” “It’s a nightmare out there/ But you want to go downtown.” The two then beautifully harmonize as somber violins weave around steel guitars. The song actually recalls Baker’s debut solo album, Sprained Ankle, in its sparse, airy arrangement.

The album doesn’t get much more rambunctious than mid-tempo acoustic-guitar-led tune “Sugar in the Tank,” a song about relationships that keep you grounded and safe. “I love you all the ways that I know how,” the two sing together.

Ramshackle tune “No Desert Flower” carries a message of resistance, with implied images of cactus.

“I can take more than a little rain/ If the going’s tough I will not cower/ And all the passing years won’t wash me away,” Baker and Scott sing.

Album opener “Dirt” bends but doesn’t break facing addiction and bad decisions.

“If you ask how I’ve been doing I won’t lie/ More than half the time I’m only skatin’ by/ Waiting for the ice to melt beneath me,” Baker sings. “Spend your whole life getting clean/ Just to wind up in the dirt.”

Yet there’s plenty of empathy and good-natured humor lining these words. Torres-led honkey tonk tune “The Only Marble I’ve Got Left” begins with the declaration that “I’m not gonna be the angel on your shoulder” and concludes that “In my book there’s no such thing as guilty pleasure/ As long as your pleasure’s not unkind.”

Send A Prayer My Way tackles these two musicians’ despair, as well as injustice and hate from farther away, but never gives up. Julien Baker and Torres send prayers to others like them with this album.

Contact editor Roman Gokhman at Bluesky.