Andrew Sa’s earliest memories of music that spoke to him happened in the Bay Area, inside his grandparents’ Lincoln Town Car. “I’d always request their cassette of Patsy Cline’s Greatest Hits,” he recalls. So when his divorced mom routinely tapped 10-year-old Andrew to warm up the crowd at her budding San Jose karaoke business, he had his go-to: “Walkin’ After Midnight.”

His adoration of the 1950s country icon has certainly paid dividends for him. He moved to Chicago in 2009, lured here in part by the Old Town School of Folk Music, where he sailed into songwriting classes and got a job at the front desk. In 2018, he began performing in the Hideout’s Cosmic Country Showcase, then took over hosting, earning a small fandom. Now he’s on the verge of breaking out: In June, he drops his debut album, American Rough, and performs release concerts at the Hideout (June 26) and Space in Evanston (June 28).

The record’s 10 songs, mostly written by Sa, proudly declare his identity as a queer country crooner. Whether chronicling desire or heartache, Sa serenades like K.D. Lang, pines with the panache of Rufus Wainwright, and trills a falsetto that would make Roy Orbison proud. Though his sound might seem more at home in Nashville, American Rough has its share of Chicago verve. Take this stanza from the hypnotically seductive “You Turned Me On”: “I started looking for guys that look like you / High and low, honey, sweeping Halsted like a broom.” If those lyrics feel like a cruisy gay update to Cline’s 69-year-old country pop hit, well, that’s no accident.

This summer, Sa takes his act on the road, playing solo shows in New York and L.A. before joining Nashville’s legendary Americanafest in September. His first two singles have already popped up on stations from Durango, Colorado, to Sydney, Australia. “As someone who grew up with radio, waiting for that song I love to come on the air, it is so thrilling,” he says, beaming. “And it’s surreal to hear my name in the mouths of people with these thick Aussie accents.”