TX country-punks Vandoliers explore gender dysphoria on new LP as singer comes out as trans

Texas country-punks Vandoliers have announced their fifth album, Life Behind Bars, and along with the album announcement, singer Jenni (Gin-ee) Rose publicly came out as a trans woman and spoke to Rolling Stone about how this album explores her journey with gender dysphoria.

As she explains, the turning point came in March 2023…

The band was scheduled to perform at the Shed, a barbecue-and-motorcycle joint in Maryville, Tennessee, not far from Knoxville. Days earlier, Tennessee’s governor, Bill Lee, signed a bill restricting public drag performances in the state. In protest, the six members of Vandoliers bought dresses and performed the concert in drag.

“I had worn a dress before, but it was in the dark, in private, or I was super ashamed of it,” Rose says. “Cory says, ‘We should wear a dress and protest this.’ And I’m going, ‘That’s a great idea!’ Then, we went and bought dresses, and I was super happy about it. I got to try on a dress with my friends. Everybody was over there, like, giggling and having a good time, and I was kind of alone. I put it on, and I felt really good. Just, Oh, I look nice! And I walked out onstage and played a great show. When It was over, I thought, ‘I was really brave today.’

“And then, it went fucking viral.”

[…] In the summer of 2022 — the same year she got sober — she started keeping a journal during a European tour. “One day, maybe a week after the dress thing happened,” she says, “I wrote, ‘Fuck. I think I’m trans.’ I closed the book and didn’t make another journal entry for, like, two months, and when I did, my next entries were just what I was doing that day: ‘I’m in San Antonio today! Had tacos! They were good!’”

Jenni also cited Laura Jane Grace’s book Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout as helping her to recognize her own gender dysphoria, and she cites producer Ted Hutt (Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly, The Gaslight Anthem, etc) with encouraging her to make her songwriting for this new album more personal, which resulted in a collection of songs that touch on this journey. Read much more at Rolling Stone.

The first single from Life Behind Bars is its title track, which Jenni co-wrote with her bandmate Cory Graves, as well as Joshua Ray Walker and John Pedigo. “This song has four writers, and each came with a different perspective for what the title means,” she says. “For Cory, it was bartending. For Joshua Ray Walker, it was jail. For John Pedigo, it was the grind of being in a working band. For me, it was dysphoria. We all connected through a shared sense of being trapped—like we were all ‘on the edge of oblivion.'”

About the album overall, she adds, “We’ve been breaking rules in country for 10 years. ‘You play too fast.’ ‘You’re too loud.’ ‘You sing too high.’ ‘You’re more of a punk band.’ All that matters, though, is that people hear our songs and they help them in any way — that’s all we can hope for. I’m struggling so much on this record, but I hope that another trans girl listens to it and finds something in it for themselves.”

Life Behind Bars comes out June 27 via Break Maiden Records / Thirty Tigers (pre-order). Watch the video for the new single below.

Vandoliers also announced a summer tour, including a show at NYC’s Mercury Lounge on August 7. All dates are listed below.

Tracklist
1. Dead Canary
2. Life Behind Bars
3. Your Picture
4. Bible Belt
5. Thoughts and Prayers
6. You Can’t Party With The Lights On (Feat. Joshua Ray Walker & Taylor Hunnicutt)
7. Valencia
8. Jim’s Barn
9. Evergreen
10. Dead in a Ditch

Vandoliers — 2025 Tour Dates
April 26 – Forney, TX @ Mustang Creek Music and Arts Festival
May 16 – Nashville, TN @ Skydeck on Broadway
May 17 – Kansas City, MO @ Dusty Trails Country Festival
June 21 – Denver, CO @ Globe Hall
June 22 – Grand Junction, CO @ Mesa Theater
June 25 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Garage on Beck
June 26 – Victor, ID @ Music On Main
June 27 – Stanley, ID @ Mountain Village Resort
June 28 – Pendleton, OR @ Jackalope Jamboree Festival
June 29 – Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern
July 2 –Spokane, WA @ The District at Knitting Factory
July 3 – Sutherlin, OR @ Music Off Central
July 4 – Lakehead, CA @ Lakeshore Inn Resort
July 5 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Moe’s Alley
July 6 – Sacramento, CA @ Goldfield Midtown
July 9 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah
July 10 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
July 11 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Rebel Lounge
July 12 – Santa Fe, NM @ ReUnity Farm
July 19 – New Braunfels, TX @ Gruene Hall
July 25 – St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway
July 26 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas
July 27 – Wisconsin Dells, WI @ Showboat Saloon
July 30 – Indianapolis, IN @ HI-FI Indy
August 1 – Atlanta, GA @ Vinyl
August 2 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle
August 3 –Charlotte, NC @ Amos’ Southend
August 6 – Washington, DC @ Pearl Street Warehouse
August 7 – New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
August 8 – Cambridge, MA @ Sonias
August 9 – Rochester, NY @ Hoochenanny Whiskey Festival
August 10 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Tavern
August 12 – Columbus, OH @ Rumba Café
August 15 – Fort Smith, AR @ Majestic
August 16 – Dallas, TX @ The Kessler Theater
August 27 – Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom
August 28 – Canyon, TX @ The Lumberyard
August 29 – Abilene, TX @ The Big Country Beer Garden
August 30 – Lubbock, TX @ Soggy Dog