Jenni Rose: Girl on the Run

Courtesy of Vandoliers

One thing is consistent here at DRTI: Vandoliers forever. To celebrate Pride Month this year, we have a guest post from longtime friend of the newsletter Jenni Rose of Vandoliers. Jenni wrote the band's new song, "Girl on the Run," shortly after she came out as a trans woman last year in a beautiful piece by our friend Josh Crutchmer in Rolling Stone. We asked her to reflect on it all for us, and we're so grateful she obliged.

"Girl on the Run"

by Jenni Rose

The stage was covered in flowers and the festival audience chanted for an encore. Usually this isn’t something I would do, but the set made me emotional. I had been worried of being rejected at country festival Jackalope Jamboree in Pendleton Oregon, one I had performed at the year before. I was afraid after coming out I wouldn’t be welcomed but instead I was met with whole-hearted acceptance by the bands, staff and a roaring crowd. I could only think of one song. I had just written it – a protest song called “Girl on the Run” that I hadn’t even shown the band yet. This one scares me, it’s too real. I’m afraid of being trans in Texas, I’m afraid of my existence becoming illegal and this song is how I process that fear. But in that moment, I felt powerful. Everything went silent but me. I sang alone, just a woman and her acoustic guitar.

I gotta go somewhere else

Be someone else

That gets a long

They’ll hang you up

If you ain’t one

Right wing, Christian, billionaire’s son

Cause around these parts

Their waving his flag

Letting me know

I ain’t welcome here

I won’t bow to anyone

Well it’s not what I want

But it’s gotta get done

I grab my purse

And I load my gun

I won’t bow to any one

I’ll be out by dawn

I’m a girl on the run

So I pack a warm coat

And my favorite dress

My broke guitar

Still plays the best

I buckle up the family

And get the dogs

Running out of Texas

Getting out of Dodge

Cause around these parts

Their waving his flag

Letting me know

I ain’t welcome here

I won’t bow to anyone

Well it’s not what I want

But it’s gotta get done

I grab my purse

And I load my gun

I won’t bow to any one

I’ll be out by dawn

I’m a girl on the run

They say Colorado is safe for now

They won’t haul me off or snuff me out

Fifteen hours is close enough

So I grab my purse and load my gun

I grab my purse and load my gun

Cause around these parts

Their waving his flag

Letting me know

I ain’t welcome here

I won’t bow to anyone

Well It’s not what I want

But it’s gotta get done

I grab my purse

And I load my gun

I won’t bow to any one

I’ll be out by dawn

I’m a girl on the run

The festival erupted with applause, the song landed, it was felt and they responded. When I got off stage I told the band and my team I wanted to record it as soon as possible.

We were just starting an international tour promoting our new album Life Behind Bars, the last thing anyone expected was for me to push to go back into the studio and write a new song. I found a small slice of time on our off day in LA, so I called our producer Ted Hutt (Dropkick Murphys, Gaslight Anthem, Flogging Molly) and told him about what had happened in Oregon. I sent him the song, told him it felt urgent and he agreed. Ted loved the song and luckily he was available. We booked studio “64 Sound” in Los Angeles for one day. Half my band wanted to kill me for making them write and record a song in a day, I knew they could do it, especially with Ted producing. The studio is owned by Rilo Kiley’s bassist Pierre de Reeder, it was the perfect vibe of vintage studio magic in a cute Californian brick bodega.

We recorded on July 7th and a mile down the road the president sent the National Guard to MacArthur Park. It was surreal to be recording a song about feeling unsafe and fleeing your home and just down the street our own government was abusing its power to intimidate its people. Hauntingly relevant. As a band we wrote and arranged the song with Ted and tracked it all day. At the end of the night we had a finished song. It’s one of the best songs we’ve ever done, in my opinion.

We continued the tour, and now the band knew the song so we started playing it every night. I was scared to play it. I remember the night Travis (fiddle) helped me get past my nerves to sing it on the legendary Gruene Hall stage, I was the first Trans woman to ever headline the venue in its 150 year history, I felt the weight of it the whole set.

I called Allison V. Smith, who took the portraits of me for Rolling Stone, and we shot the cover for the single in Hubbard Texas on the side of a dirt road. I wore a white night gown, with my purse and guitar in hand opening the door of an old truck. My bare feet on the gravel hurt like hell but I thought the desperate feeling of the song came out beautifully in the picture.

"Girl on the Run" came out 4/17/2026 on the one year anniversary of coming out in Rolling Stone. Now it’s the start of every show, the song that scared me the most is now the opening number. It sets a tone, draws a line in the sand, leaves nothing to question. It's the front line. I get messages from queer fans, parents of trans children or some still closeted telling me how much the song and our show has meant to them. I am deeply proud of this song, proud of what Vandoliers stands for and proud to be a trans woman from Texas.