Queer musicians have long mined beauty from the darkest of seams - and today's artists are taking that treasure and using it to make magic. In Small Town Joy, trans writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall discovers the sometimes surprising ways LGBTQ+ artists changed Scotland's soundtrack, meeting Scots artists, industry insiders and music fans to celebrate the music and musicians that filled floors, opened minds and changed lives. Featuring interviews with Shirley Manson (Garbage), Lauren Mayberry (CHVRCHES), Sean Dickson (HIFI Sean), Maya Evan MacGregor and many more.

Carrie Marshall has been a professional writer for three decades and an unprofessional musician for nearly four. As a writer Carrie has written, co-written or ghost-written over twenty non-fiction books under various names, and her memoir about coming out as trans, Carrie Kills A Man (404 Ink, 2022), was shortlisted in the Discover category of the British Book Awards. As a musician Carrie has been heckled, bottled, threatened with knives, harassed by the police, molested, mocked in national newspapers, electrocuted, ripped off, chased by screaming girls, and even set on fire, although not all at the same time. She is the singer in the band Unquiet Mind.