Texas country-punk ensemble Vandoliers have announced their fifth studio album, “Life Behind Bars“, which will be released on June 27th via Break Maiden Records/Thirty Tigers which can be pre-ordered here. The album marks several firsts for the band, but most importantly, this collection of songs offers a window into frontwoman Jenni (Gin-ee) Rose’s journey through addiction and gender dysphoria – a journey that has culminated in her decision to come out as a trans woman which she opened up about in an extensive new interview with Rolling Stone.
Along with the announcement, the band has shared a video for the album’s title track, which was co-written with Rose and bandmate Cory Graves, as well as Joshua Ray Walker and John Pedigo. The band has also just announced a string of US summer tour dates, although nothing in Europe so far.
Jenni Rose on the debut single: “This song has four writers, and each came with a different perspective for what the title means. 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.'”
In 2023, when Rose was barely six months sober, the Vandoliers were scheduled to play a show in Maryville, TN, on the same day that the state’s governor signed a “drag ban” bill. Graves suggested the band wear dresses on stage in protest and auction them off to benefit LGBTQ+ causes. Photos from the show went viral, generating coverage everywhere from Rolling Stone to a segment on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, but for Jenni, it was a public moment that would change everything. “That was the first time I had ever worn a dress in public, but not the first time I had worn a dress — and then the entire planet saw it,” she says. “The wall that I had keeping this side of me invisible was completely shattered. I wrote down in my journal, ‘Fuck, I think I’m trans.'”
Rose spent months grappling with that realisation, all the while putting together the songs for the next Vandoliers album and continuing the band’s extensive touring schedule. It wasn’t until they entered the studio with Grammy-winning producer Ted Hutt (The Gaslight Anthem, Flogging Molly, Lucero) that Rose realised she had been writing about the experience of dysphoria. Whittled down from 40 songs to 10 carefully honed tracks, the result may feel a little more stripped and intimate than the band’s typical raucous fare but is still chock-full of upbeat and sing-along-ready Vandoliers songs.
“We’ve been breaking rules in country for 10 years,” says Rose. “‘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” tracklisting:
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
