Many new artists these days get their big breaks on TikTok. But unlike many of those viral sensations, sister duo Tigirlily Gold had already proven their chops in the bar and club scene in Nashville before being discovered. In this episode of On the Bus, Country Thunder CEO Troy Vollhoffer talks with Kendra Olson and Krista Slaubaugh of Tigirlily Gold about their serendipitous discovery by songwriter/producer Shane McAnally, the female artists and duos they are inspired by, and how they balance their strengths and personalities working together as sisters. Plus, stick around for our new segment, Bring the Thunder, where Troy features upcoming artist John Morgan talking about his favorite song lyric, festival moment, and tour bus must-haves.
Chapter 1: How did Tigirlily Gold get their start in music?
Thanks for having us.
And thanks for coming over today. I mean, we usually do this on the bus, but it's off season, so.
Right.
And it's great to have you.
This place is beautiful, so I'm not mad about being here today. It's very homey.
Well, thank you. Thank you. We usually have the fire rolling, but I mean, they don't let us do that here today, you know, so, but. Don't want to be sweating. So, North Dakota. Yes. How did you get your start?
We're from North Dakota. We're sisters. Grew up there, obviously. We started when we were 14 and 16. We started tragically. And we started touring around the Midwest, basically doing any show that anyone would let us play.
So you named the band or the group immediately?
Pretty much. I mean... Kendra's two years older and she always loved to sing. So she's the lead singer of the group. I do all the harmony, acoustic guitar, and we write all our songs together. But she caught the singing bug really early on and was doing like little talent shows, Colgate Country Showdown, if you remember those, around the area. And she loved performing.
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Chapter 2: What was Tigirlily Gold's breakthrough moment in Nashville?
And I would say Whiskey Row was the main bar we played at. And 2020 rolled around and, you know, shut down everything. We were... Out of work? I mean, that was our bread and butter. And we really didn't know what music was gonna bring in this next couple years. And we, it was really hard times. But we got a call in 2020, late 2020, from Monument Records. And we had never met Shane McAnally.
So Shane co-owns Monument Records. And we were just huge fans of his songwriting. We'd always been songwriting fans. And we just wanted to write with him. I mean, much less work with him in this aspect. But we got a call and it was so quick. We got a call and we walked in and it was the most nervous we've ever been. Oh, yeah.
I mean, it's Shane McAnally, Jason Owen, which Jason Owen's also a huge manager.
Sandbox Entertainment.
And I mean, he manages Kelsey and Dan and Shay and Casey. And so you're sitting in front of
That's Shania Twain for a while.
Yeah. And Katie McCartney, she runs Monument Records. So you're sitting in front of these three people and you're like, I... My life could change in this moment. And so we were so nervous. And honestly, we hadn't been playing like any shows because of the pandemic. We had been on TikTok really trying to dive into the social media thing and had some videos blowing up on there.
But yeah, we met with them. And honestly, not too long after that signed with Monument. And ever since then, I feel like our journey has just really, really picked up. It's been over 12 years now that we've been doing this. And then the last few years, we've had a couple songs go to country radio. We won our first ACM award, which I see a lot of ACM awards in here.
And it's just been a really, really cool journey. But to have someone like... Shane in your corner who you look up to so much to have him being part of the A&R process of when you're going in to cut a record or things like that. It's just really cool. He he helped co-write our brand new single that's going to radio called Forever From Here. Yeah, he's just he's great. But it's super cool.
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Chapter 3: How did the pandemic change Tigirlily Gold's career path?
So let's regress a little bit. So a lot of artists, I mean, I believe music has changed over the course of that year and a half or whatever we were down during COVID. I think the business has changed considerably. So you've done it the way that most artists that have long, stable careers, they went out and earned their applause.
They had to get the guy at the back of the bar to pay attention to their music. So over the course of time and learning how to entertain and perform and making sure that everyone's being attentive to your performance, what do you think that has changed? I'm sure your life, I've never seen you and I apologize for that because I'm going to see you. Hey, come on out.
Because I love the fact of the road that you took where you actually did it the tougher way. But I think that gives longevity. But explain to me the trials and tribulations of working those clubs and trying to get that person in the back row to listen to your music.
I mean, it's terrifying when you do your first four hour cover gig, you have to learn 60 to 80 songs and it's an audition basically. So we, we skipped class at Belmont to go audition at nudies. That was the first time we had done a four hour.
Nudies was your first gig.
Yeah. Yeah. And so you're just on the stage in this bar and you're like, okay, how do I entertain these people who have no idea who I am for four hours? It's, The 10,000-hour rule, honestly, like, you just got to play and you learn. And we were terrible probably right away. I mean, we had some natural, you know, charisma or whatever. But it's a skill.
It is.
I mean, yes, you need to have natural talent, but also you need to work at it and develop that skill. And both Kendra and I agree. It's, hey, if we can get people who don't know, don't care, just want to have fun and party in Nashville to pay attention to us... We really believe we can do anything now. Take that with us everywhere we go. Whether it's, you know, a bar or a festival.
Or opening up for somebody who their fans are not familiar with you. It's kind of the same thing. And you can take those skills and apply them really anywhere. And just the art of entertaining, you know. And kind of... I mean, for me, it's like my whole life I've been so focused on I have to be vocally perfect and do all these things and whatever. But it's really not about that as much.
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Chapter 4: What are Tigirlily Gold's goals and influences?
So like a lot of Kelly Clarkson or Jordan Sparks or Chris Daughtry, like a lot of different influences. And then we grew up in church, too. So just all the hymns and stuff. So it's kind of all of that. You sang in church? Yeah, we sang in church all the time. I mean, every Sunday. And I annual Baptist represent them. Yeah. So just so many different influences.
And yeah, it's it's been a fun journey. But I feel like we're definitely leaning more into that early part. 2000s, late 90s sound for the next record, which I'm very excited about. It's getting, we've always been country, but it's getting country-er.
Yeah, I just heard the other day, which is kind of interesting, that the band Perry's coming back out again. Oh, I love that. And they're going to do the country thing again. And I was like, it's interesting because I think it could really work, I think. I mean, they were killing it.
I mean, Better Dig 2, and if I know wrong.
They were on fire.
I mean, yeah, they were a huge influence for us too, honestly. And yeah, I think Shane wrote some of those songs.
Yeah, I know.
I know Kimberly Perry a little bit, but she's so nice. And yeah, wish them the best. And man, I hope they go. You want to crank out some more Bam Perry hits? I'm not going to be mad about it. I love the music.
That's fantastic. So what's up this year? So tell us about what 2025 is for you. of the band.
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Chapter 5: How do Kendra and Krista balance their personal and professional relationship?
But it is work because when you have to go and do meet and greets when you're not, you may have the stomach flu or whatever and not feeling your best, you got to put your best on every day. I mean, you have this persona that you're carrying and I mean, it's very important to your career. That is work.
It is. And we're all just human at the end of the day. Right. But yeah, for some reason, you know, if you do music or you're in movies, people like think that sometimes you're not. I mean, not us personally, but other people think they're not as human. And it's crazy. It's like we all get sick. We all have bad days. We all, you know, have times when we're not feeling our best.
But you still have to. Yeah. At the end of the day, it's like I'm going to give not every day is your absolute best, but I'm going to give my best today. Yeah, and we can kind of, it's really nice being in a duo because we can keep each other in check as far as how we're feeling. We also humble each other daily just because we're sisters. Not that we try to. I love that you're sisters.
Yeah, but like we keep it real. I think it's the coolest thing ever.
We keep it real and also.
You seem like you really get along. We do.
it's a good dynamic we actually have one more younger sister her name's Carly and she was never wanted to be in the band she never had interest in the music thing but we actually do really get along and we get asked that a lot like do y'all like fight a ton like how's your relationship and it's Man, if we hated each other, it absolutely could not be a band. Absolutely not.
And I really feel... Oh, go ahead. No, I was going to say, we get to play festivals together. We get to... If, you know, we're having a terrible day, we can just look at each other and laugh about what's going on. Like, you have someone else with you the whole time. How is that not better? I always, you know... Unless you don't like the person. Exactly. Like, after a show...
We're pretty chill in our camp. We like to have fun sometimes, but we'll be like, hey, you want to come to my hotel? We're going to do a face mask and watch Friends. You can do a face mask with us.
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