{"id":123435,"date":"2025-08-06T11:16:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T11:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/123435\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T11:16:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T11:16:14","slug":"in-bold-new-chapter-the-vandoliers-come-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/123435\/","title":{"rendered":"In bold new chapter, the Vandoliers come home"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Vandoliers<\/a> are certainly no strangers to the Kessler Theater. But their Aug. 16 homecoming concert unveils a bold new chapter in the band\u2019s 10-year existence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the last show on the tour, but my first show in Dallas as Jenni,\u201d says lead singer Jenni Rose, who publicly came out as transgender in April.<\/p>\n

The concert also marks the local debut of \u201cGirl On the Run,\u201d which Rose calls \u201cmy first song written from a trans perspective.\u201d Fans have hooted and hollered every time the band\u2019s played \u201cGirl,\u201d but Rose admits the tune has dark undertones.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a song [about] the fear of being trans right now \u2026 in this political climate.\u201d<\/p>\n

News Roundups<\/p>\n

Catch up on the day’s news you need to know.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Formed in 2015 in the sturm-und-twang spirit of North Texas acts like Slobberbone and the Old 97\u2019s<\/a> (a band Rose calls \u201cmentors\u201d), the Vandoliers debuted with the aptly titled 2016 album Ameri-Kinda on Dallas-based State Fair Records.<\/p>\n

\"Jenni<\/p>\n

Jenni Rose, center, lead singer of the Vandoliers, says \u201cDead Canary\u201d from the band’s new album,\u00a0“Life Behind Bars,” is “kind of about that inner shadow work of knowing there\u2019s a hard side of my life that I had been avoiding.”<\/p>\n

Vincent Monsaint<\/p>\n

But after four years of near-constant touring, Rose realized she had an alcohol problem. In 2022, she finally quit drinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t able to do my job,\u201d says Rose, 36. \u201cI was losing my voice a lot. I was just tired of blacking out and waking up in depression and shame.\u201d<\/p>\n

The experience spawned \u201cDead Canary,\u201d the haunting leadoff track to Life Behind Bars, the group\u2019s fifth album, released in June. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of about that inner shadow work of knowing there\u2019s a hard side of my life that I had been avoiding,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Grounded by her newfound sobriety, Rose began therapy and journaling. Then, in March 2023, a turning point arrived.<\/p>\n

Performing near Knoxville, Tenn., all six Vandoliers donned dresses to protest the state\u2019s new anti-drag law, causing a stir on social media and prompting James McMurtry<\/a> and other musicians to do the same.<\/p>\n

In the wake of it all, Rose found herself scribbling the words \u201cI might be trans\u201d in her journal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was such a scary thing to write down. My heart\u2019s racing just thinking about it,\u201d Rose says by phone from Georgia as the Vandoliers cruise down the highway in a Ford Transit high-top van.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Late last year, she finally gathered the nerve to come out to her bandmates, in the van, after they\u2019d finished eating breakfast at Taco Bell. She braced herself for the worst.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the polar opposite happened. Everyone was fully accepting,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody batted an eye,\u201d says Corey Graves, the band\u2019s backing vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. \u201cNobody was crazy surprised. I was just like \u2018I\u2019m proud of you.\u2019\u201d The rest of the group had her back, too \u2014 guitarist Dustin Fleming, drummer Trey Alfaro, fiddler Travis Curry and bassist Mark Moncrieff.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

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. \u201cI don\u2019t really relate to a lot of Texas culture. I don\u2019t feel safe in my home state anymore,\u201d Rose says.<\/p>\n

Vincent Monsaint<\/p>\n

Partly as a result of Rose\u2019s experiences, Life Behind Bars is a \u201cheavier, deeper\u201d album than past records, she says.<\/p>\n

Adding to that vibe is \u201cThoughts and Prayers,\u201d 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\u2019d forgotten which shooting inspired it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of what the song is about. It\u2019s such a common occurrence you can\u2019t possibly remember all of them \u2026. the shooting happens, you tweet \u2018thoughts and prayers\u2019 but you don\u2019t actually do anything, and the cycle continues,\u201d Graves says.<\/p>\n

But the album\u2019s most moving tunes deal with Rose\u2019s gender distress, including the infectious title track, which the band co-wrote with Joshua Ray Walker<\/a> and John Pedigo. Another standout is \u201cBible Belt,\u201d which is partly about Rose\u2019s religious upbringing in suburban Fort Worth, but also about confronting societal and political hurdles as a trans person.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really relate to a lot of Texas culture. I don\u2019t feel safe in my home state anymore,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s frightening how people treat trans people. After coming out publicly, my nervous system is on overdrive, and I don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Country music hasn\u2019t always been the most inclusive place for nonhetero performers. But Rose hopes that\u2019s changing. She points to the queer masked singer Orville Peck and other acts who\u2019ve \u201copened the door.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201cI love you\u201d to Rose \u2014 a symbolic gesture the singer describes as \u201cunforgettable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think country belongs to everyone,\u201d she says. \u201cMaybe that\u2019s how we fit into the lineage. Maybe we\u2019re the band that allows space for everyone in Texas country music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Details<\/p>\n

With opening acts Pi\u00f1ata Protest and Nate Bergman, 7:45 p.m. Aug. 16 at the Kessler Theater, 1230 W. Davis St., Dallas. $32 and up, prekindle.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"FILE<\/a>Fan falls to his death during Oasis concert in London<\/a><\/p>\n

Witnesses to the incident were asked to call police.<\/p>\n

\"Flaco<\/a>Flaco Jim\u00e9nez, legend of Tejano music, dies at 86<\/a><\/p>\n

The San Antonio native died on July 31, his family announced on social media. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Vandoliers are certainly no strangers to the Kessler Theater. But their Aug. 16 homecoming concert unveils a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":123436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,975,7260,4006,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-123435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-performing-arts","12":"tag-pop-music","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114981541404275817","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}