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A Cape Cod venue allegedly canceled rising country star Carly Tefft’s planned performances after she sang the national anthem at a Donald Trump rally in April.
Tefft spoke with the Howie Carr Show on Wednesday about receiving a call from the owner of Harvest Gallery, a restaurant that features art and music in Dennis, Mass., just five days after her Star-Spangled performance. Although she had performed at Harvest Gallery multiple times, Tefft claimed that the owner said he had to cancel her future appearances due to "controversy."
"He thought that his customer base would feel—he used a very specific word—threatened," Tefft said.
According to Tefft’s account, the owner compared placing her name on the live music schedule to hanging obscene artwork on the wall.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a 2024 election campaign rally in Waco, Texas, March 25, 2023. (SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Images)
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"‘I can’t have nude artistry hanging in my space,’ he said, and he was comparing that to what I did," Tefft said, according to the Howie Carr Show.
She also recalled the owner asking her whether she was a Trump supporter.
"I just sighed. I knew that no matter what I said, he had already made up his mind. That’s his business, and that’s his prerogative," Tefft said.
She reported that she responded, "Truth be told, the only person I wholeheartedly support is God. This was an opportunity to bring people together with the national anthem by a former president."
The owner purportedly replied that they "love that you have a great head on your shoulders but" thought that "it’s best for my customer base if we go ahead and cancel your performances for the rest of the year."
Tefft said this was a "first" for her being banned for her work and that despite her canceled performances, the owner stated that she was still welcome eat or drink at the bar itself.
Carly Tefft sang the national anthem at a Donald Trump rally in April. (REUTERS/Amr Alfiky)
The singer first commented on her performance at a New Hampshire Trump rally back on April 27 with a post to her Instagram account.
"when 45 calls you to sing the anthem, just letting God use my voice as a vessel. @realdonaldtrump, thank you mr. president," her post read, with emojis.
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Though Tefft stated that she was aware her performance would likely be polarizing, she hoped that it would serve as an "opportunity."
"Still, this was an opportunity to bring people together with the National Anthem by a former president," she said to the Howie Carr Show. "For me, that’s full of positives."
Remarking on the aftermath of her cancelation, Tefft said, "I thought, this is just me. I’m cool with it. But what it actually represents, I’m not cool with. My kids one day, just because they go to one church or like one person or support one team, if they can’t work somewhere, that’s not okay."
Iraq and Afghanistan veteran Kirby Bowling, 45, of Laurel, MD, is photographed along his dog Sig, during the National Anthem on Friday, January 19, 2018, at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)
On her Twitter account Wednesday, Tefft tweeted out a video of her song "Freedom in This Country" which features lyrics such as "It all starts with a wild heart/Standing up and taking charge" and "Bring back those days/When We weren’t stuck in our ways/Time to be the change that we all want to see/And that’s freedom in this country."
"Feel like I should re-release this tune...what do y'all think?" Tefft tweeted after her cancelation story was published.
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Neither Tefft nor Harvest Gallery responded to a request for comment.
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