Kim Lenz

Kim Lenz stands as the queen of traditional rockabilly, a commanding live performer whose earthy, confident style draws directly from the twang-driven legacy left by 1950s icons Wanda Jackson and Janis Martin. Emerging from the Dallas rockabilly circuit in the 1990s, she swiftly rose to prominence as an Americana figure. With her backing group the Jaguars she released two breakthrough records on the Hightone imprint—Kim Lenz & the Jaguars in 1998 and The One and Only in 1999—mixing classic material with original songs. Though still anchored in the vintage rockabilly sound of the 1950s, she broadened her palette; later efforts such as Follow Me in 2013 and Slowly Speeding in 2019 incorporated her affinity for classic R&B, Western swing, and country.

Her mother competed in rodeo events while her father collected Wolfman Jack broadcasts, giving Lenz an early immersion in strong music during her Southern California upbringing. Born in San Diego in 1966, she absorbed the recordings of Janis Martin, Wanda Jackson, Faron Young, and Johnny Horton as a child. Piano came first, followed by guitar in her teenage years. A period spent in Los Angeles exposed her to continuous big-band radio at her workplace, introducing her to numerous standards of that era. She pursued a psychology degree at the University of North Texas and, before finishing, connected with musicians intent on starting a group. She joined what became the six-piece Rocket, Rocket, yet the band dissolved within a year.

By the mid-1990s she had relocated to Dallas and assembled her own unit, the Jaguars, whose original lineup included Tom Umberger on lead guitar, Shawn Supra on bass fiddle, and Scotty Tecce on drums. In 1996 Lenz and the Jaguars issued an EP through the Colorado-based Wormtone label. Local notice followed, and the Dallas Observer named her Best Female Vocalist the next year. Hightone executive Larry Sloven encountered the EP and, impressed by her sound, signed her to the subsidiary HMG. That imprint released the debut full-length Kim Lenz & the Jaguars in 1998; Lenz wrote more than half of its fourteen tracks and included covers of “Ten Cats Down,” first cut by the Miller Sisters, and “The Swing,” previously recorded by Johnny Carroll. Wally Hersom, bassist with Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys, produced the sessions, which relied heavily on vintage recording gear. The following year she delivered the similarly retro-sounding The One & Only; a 2005 compilation titled Up to My Old Tricks Again collected earlier work.

Lenz resurfaced in 2009 with the studio album It’s All True. Shortly after its release she learned she had been adopted, an event that triggered intense self-examination. Around the same period she endured the loss of longtime friend and guitarist Nick Curran to cancer. From that stretch of upheaval she shaped the material for Follow Me, issued in 2013. Produced by veteran roots pianist Carl Sonny Leyland, the record highlighted her renewed confidence and assertive rockabilly stance. Slowly Speeding arrived in 2019 and extended her roots-rockabilly base into excursions through old-school R&B, Western swing, and country.