Dairy Queen is a useful scene-setting device. Like John Mellencamp name-checking the Tastee-Freez, songwriters have been dropping DQ into their songs to evoke a small-town milieu for decades. From Alabama and Alan Jackson to Brad Paisley and Luke Combs, country artists often reference Dairy Queen to connote innocence, community, and working-class grit. Those same humble associations can be wielded negatively. For up-and-coming indie band Charly Bliss, DQ signified resignation to a life of unfulfilled dreams. For city-dweller David Byrne, it was a mystifying alien institution. Wednesday are staunch defenders of Southern living, but when seeking to paint a picture of rural desolation, Karly Hartzman titled her song “The Burned Down Dairy Queen.”
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