Tigirlily Gold, the duo of sisters Kendra, and Krista Slaubaugh, are bound together by two powerful elements: blood and music. Born and raised in North Dakota, Krista describes her older sister by two years as a “natural performer” who caught the “performing bug early on” when she was encouraged by their grandmother to enter a singing competition. Krista was also honing her own musical skills by playing guitar, writing songs, and singing background harmony for Kendra at her live shows. As teenagers, the two realized their deep bond translated musically when they started writing songs and singing together.
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“We could really tell that when we sang and wrote together, we were definitely stronger together than we were apart,” Kendra tells American Songwriter. “It’s a really special connection that you can’t really get with anyone else.”
At the ages of 14 and 16, Krista and Kendra, respectively, decided to form a band, spending their youth gigging around their home state. Tigirlily Gold’s musical prowess took them across state lines, touring throughout the Midwest for five years, headlining countless 90-minute sets. Their dreams brought them to Nashville in 2017 where they started busking on Broadway. The duo was performing three to four days a week in the bars, making the majority of their money off tips, a stark contrast to the headlining sets they were doing back home.
“I remember that being a really hard thing for us to do,” Kendra shares, recalling how they once had to learn up to 80 cover songs for an audition. “That humbles you really really quickly because it is not a glamorous job.” She notes that those grueling nights on Broadway proved to be the ideal training ground when it came to songwriting.
They cite their debut single, “Shoot Tequila,” as a “prime example” of how cutting their teeth on Broadway impacted their songwriting, as it taught them how to write a song that captivated a live audience from start to finish. Co-written with Kevin Griffin of Better Than Ezra and David Mescon, “Shoot Tequila” packs an energy-filled punch that’s tailor-made for country radio. The duo tested the song out on live audiences for a year before they released it to country radio in March 2023. “We wanted to encapsulate this fun, honky-tonk energy,” Krista says of the track. “We always say it’s our ‘honky-tonk, let’s go, girl’ song.”
“Our whole brand is this girl group energy and we’re not afraid to make fun of ourselves,” adds Kendra. “So if people are smiling, laughing a little bit at our music, it’s good.”
Describing their songwriting process as “unfiltered,” Krista says they’ve made a habit of putting their egos aside to determine what’s best for the song. “We are not worried about hurting each other’s feelings in the writing room,” she asserts. “We’re not afraid to fight each other for what’s better for the song.”
“As sisters, we’re super empathetic towards each other,” adds Kendra. “We care so deeply for one another that even if we’re not going through what the other one is going through, we can still feel that and understand it in a way of being sisters.”
Upon moving to Nashville, one of the people who believed in their voices was hit songwriter Shane McAnally. After he discovered them on Instagram, he signed Tigirlily Gold to his label Monument Records and publishing company SMACKSongs in 2021. “Be who you are and say it how it is,” the duo recounts McAnally’s best advice, calling him a “big champion in our corner.”
“We want to make sure every song that we’re writing and getting ready to record is really where we’re at in life, how we feel, and very authentic to our journey,” shares Kendra.
This mission is reflected in their upcoming EP, Blonde, due out on June 23. It includes “Shoot Tequila” as well as the sentimental “Hometown Song,” which talks about growing up in a small town, striking a balance between celebrating the community you love while acknowledging the painful memories that are better left behind. “We wanted to be really honest and truthful with ourselves, and hopefully other people can feel the same experience that we went through,” Kendra says of the song.
For the fiery duo, Blonde isn’t merely a hair color, but a state of mind that represents their “girl group energy.” True to their word, they intentionally incorporate “girl” into their name to represent the fresh sound and spirit they’re bringing to country music.
“It’s being bold, confident in who you are, empowering other women. We’re all about female empowerment,” Kendra says of Tigirlily Gold’s mission statement and the BlondeEP. “When I say ‘girl group energy,’ they empower you and make you want to kick a door down and feel so confident and good about yourself and very seen. That’s what we want to bring to country music— that feeling. This is really just us being who we are.”
Photo by Jared Olson
