The Vandoliers are certainly no strangers to the Kessler Theater. But their Aug. 16 homecoming concert unveils a bold new chapter in the band’s 10-year existence.
“It’s the last show on the tour, but my first show in Dallas as Jenni,” says lead singer Jenni Rose, who publicly came out as transgender in April.
The concert also marks the local debut of “Girl On the Run,” which Rose calls “my first song written from a trans perspective.” Fans have hooted and hollered every time the band’s played “Girl,” but Rose admits the tune has dark undertones.
“It’s a song [about] the fear of being trans right now … in this political climate.”
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Having built a rep for rowdy, sweaty, booze-filled shows, the Vandoliers now find themselves navigating a more nuanced existence in the pedal-to-the-metal world of country-punk.
Formed in 2015 in the sturm-und-twang spirit of North Texas acts like Slobberbone and the Old 97’s (a band Rose calls “mentors”), the Vandoliers debuted with the aptly titled 2016 album Ameri-Kinda on Dallas-based State Fair Records.
Jenni Rose, center, lead singer of the Vandoliers, says “Dead Canary” from the band’s new album, “Life Behind Bars,” is “kind of about that inner shadow work of knowing there’s a hard side of my life that I had been avoiding.”
Vincent Monsaint
But after four years of near-constant touring, Rose realized she had an alcohol problem. In 2022, she finally quit drinking.
“I wasn’t able to do my job,” says Rose, 36. “I was losing my voice a lot. I was just tired of blacking out and waking up in depression and shame.”
The experience spawned “Dead Canary,” the haunting leadoff track to Life Behind Bars, the group’s fifth album, released in June. “It’s kind of about that inner shadow work of knowing there’s a hard side of my life that I had been avoiding,” she says.
Grounded by her newfound sobriety, Rose began therapy and journaling. Then, in March 2023, a turning point arrived.
Performing near Knoxville, Tenn., all six Vandoliers donned dresses to protest the state’s new anti-drag law, causing a stir on social media and prompting James McMurtry and other musicians to do the same.
In the wake of it all, Rose found herself scribbling the words “I might be trans” in her journal.
“That was such a scary thing to write down. My heart’s racing just thinking about it,” Rose says by phone from Georgia as the Vandoliers cruise down the highway in a Ford Transit high-top van.
“When I let myself wear a dress in public and it went viral, it kind of relieved the tension of my secret dysphoria. Some of the walls I had put up to guard myself shattered.”
Late last year, she finally gathered the nerve to come out to her bandmates, in the van, after they’d finished eating breakfast at Taco Bell. She braced herself for the worst.
“But the polar opposite happened. Everyone was fully accepting,” she says.
“Nobody batted an eye,” says Corey Graves, the band’s backing vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. “Nobody was crazy surprised. I was just like ‘I’m proud of you.’” The rest of the group had her back, too — guitarist Dustin Fleming, drummer Trey Alfaro, fiddler Travis Curry and bassist Mark Moncrieff.
The most moving songs on the Vandoliers’ latest album, “Life Behind Bars,” deal with lead singer Jenni Rose’s gender distress, including the infectious title track. “I don’t really relate to a lot of Texas culture. I don’t feel safe in my home state anymore,” Rose says.
Vincent Monsaint
Partly as a result of Rose’s experiences, Life Behind Bars is a “heavier, deeper” album than past records, she says.
Adding to that vibe is “Thoughts and Prayers,” a song Graves began writing after the 2017 mass shooting at a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip. When he circled back to finish it, he’d forgotten which shooting inspired it.
“That’s kind of what the song is about. It’s such a common occurrence you can’t possibly remember all of them …. the shooting happens, you tweet ‘thoughts and prayers’ but you don’t actually do anything, and the cycle continues,” Graves says.
But the album’s most moving tunes deal with Rose’s gender distress, including the infectious title track, which the band co-wrote with Joshua Ray Walker and John Pedigo. Another standout is “Bible Belt,” which is partly about Rose’s religious upbringing in suburban Fort Worth, but also about confronting societal and political hurdles as a trans person.
“I don’t really relate to a lot of Texas culture. I don’t feel safe in my home state anymore,” she says.
“It’s frightening how people treat trans people. After coming out publicly, my nervous system is on overdrive, and I don’t know what to do about it, other than continue to live authentically and bring awareness so other people can sing along and feel heard and feel seen.”
Country music hasn’t always been the most inclusive place for nonhetero performers. But Rose hopes that’s changing. She points to the queer masked singer Orville Peck and other acts who’ve “opened the door.”
Today, the Vandoliers are ready to walk through it. In June, during a country festival in Oregon, fans showered the band with red roses and screamed “I love you” to Rose — a symbolic gesture the singer describes as “unforgettable.”
“I think country belongs to everyone,” she says. “Maybe that’s how we fit into the lineage. Maybe we’re the band that allows space for everyone in Texas country music.”
Details
With opening acts Piñata Protest and Nate Bergman, 7:45 p.m. Aug. 16 at the Kessler Theater, 1230 W. Davis St., Dallas. $32 and up, prekindle.com.
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