Nashville-based indie-rock artist and LGBTQ+ advocate Abby Nissenbaum is serving up something playfully subversive with her latest single, “Gentleman”, and today we are delighted to premiere its wonderfully tongue-in-cheek new video.
Lifted from Nissenbaum’s new EP, Want to Be Wrong, due for release this Friday, 17th July. “Gentleman” takes aim at the idealised, hypermasculine “dream man” so often presented in country music. In his place, Nissenbaum offers herself: thoughtful, dependable, precise and more than capable of providing a soft place to land.
Musically, the track draws upon the polished country-pop of the 1980s and ’90s, pairing its bright, instantly likeable hooks with what Nissenbaum describes as a dose of “Sapphic honky-tonk attitude”. It is cheeky, affectionate and joyfully queer, while still carrying a reassuring message beneath its humour.
“‘Gentleman’ is an outrageous, rip-roaring, unabashedly LGBTQ country song that serves as a cheeky response to the fantasy ‘dream man’ sold in country music,” Nissenbaum explains. “Sonically, it blends ’80s–’90s country-pop with a touch of Sapphic honky-tonk attitude.”
The song’s narrator is not riding in on a tractor, cracking open a beer or throwing a football. Instead, she recognises the woman in front of her as someone perfectly capable of running her own life, while gently making it known that companionship remains on offer. ‘Gentleman’ dismantles country music’s dream-man fantasy with sharp humour, irresistible hooks and a winning display of queer confidence.
That lightness and confidence carry over beautifully into the video, directed and shot by Oceanna Colgan. Wearing tennis whites and singing directly to camera, Nissenbaum heads onto the court to demonstrate her skills with a racquet and good humour. The visual becomes an affectionate rejection of the rugged country stereotype, replacing tractors and football fields with serves, volleys and the distinctly New England atmosphere of a local tennis court.
“For the music video, I thought it would be humorous to completely rebuke the concept of a tractor-driving, beer-drinking, football-playing, big country dream guy by showing me, a barely five-foot-tall, Connecticut-raised, femme lesbian, playing perhaps the most New England sport of all: tennis,” she says.
The shoot was not without its challenges. Nissenbaum reveals that the ball machine unexpectedly decided to test her with drills suited to players operating at a considerably more advanced level.
“Oceanna did an amazing job capturing all the action, especially when my ball machine freaked out and would only give me NTRP 7.0 drills that I could barely run to, let alone return!”. Those moments only add to the video’s easygoing charm.
Produced by Valencia-based singer, songwriter and producer Martin Trevox, “Gentleman” was created in collaboration with Argentina-based producer and mix engineer Fede Catenaro. Together, the pair bring a contemporary pop clarity to the track without losing its country character or mischievous sense of fun.
Across her work, Nissenbaum has written candidly about depression, isolation and heartbreak, balancing those heavier experiences with messages of hope, empowerment and community. “Gentleman” arrives from the more exuberant end of that spectrum: a playful invitation built around care, respect and the refreshing proposition that perhaps the best gentleman is not a man at all.
Watch the exclusive premiere of Abby Nissenbaum’s “Gentleman” below. “Gentleman” is taken from Abby Nissenbaum’s new EP, Want to Be Wrong, out 17th July. You can pre-save the EP HERE.
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Header image credit: Hannah Kirk
