Country duo Tigirlily Gold mature with confidence on debut album 'Blonde'

Fans of '90s country music who were born at the onset of pop's 2000s era are finally old enough to date and drink.

If wanting to crystallize why Tigirlily Gold — 2024's Academy of Country Music Best New Duo or Group award winners — are experiencing a massive surge of success as their debut album "Blonde," is being released, that's it, in a nutshell.

Yes, the North Dakota-born sisterly tandem of Kendra and Krista Slaubaugh are massively talented at delivering radio-ready vocal harmonies and have spent the better part of a decade honing their craft at bars and clubs nationwide.

However, the styles at which they're most gifted — lovelorn torch songs and bright, guitar-driven party anthems — had just stopped reigning in prevalence when the duo began their careers. Those songs' absence from the mainstream, however, has finally worn long enough to make the hearts of country traditionalists' grow fond of them yet again.

For the past three years, those desires have begun to dovetail into the creative orbit of the sisters Slaubaugh.

Being signed to songwriter Shane McAnally's Monument Records, touring with artists like Walker Hayes and Ashley McBryde, gaining the cosign of Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood and achieving Top 40 Billboard charting status only scratched the surface of success for the duo.

"Blonde" offers more.

Tigirlily Gold reaches a higher level of artistry

The sisters spoke by phone with The Tennessean while on the road opening for Hayes at the Buchanan County Fair in Independence, Iowa. Couple that with performing onstage at the Academy of Country Music Awards in suburban Dallas of playing onstage alongside Dolly Parton on her February "Pet Gala" broadcast and you get an example of the broad spectrum of places where Tigirlily Gold's sounds are gaining in favor of late.

"Blonde," released July 26, is an amalgamation of songs representing four years of working with and singing songs by award winners and chart toppers, including Jessie Jo Dillon (Morgan Wallen's "Lies Lies Lies," Dan & Shay's "10,000 Hours, Megan Moroney's "Girl in the Mirror"), Pete Good (Carly Pearce featuring Chris Stapleton, "We Don't Fight Anymore") and Josh Jenkins (Jordan Davis' "Buy Dirt").

The result is work that moves beyond the previous narrative that, under their platinum-colored hair, they're best-renowned for making "carefree, fun, honky-tonk anthems that make people feel good."

Yes, "Shoot Tequila," a "crowd-pleaser" about dancing atop a bar after doing a quadruple shot of Mexican liquor to get over an ex-partner, is on the album. But they're also aiming for something with greater depth.

"I Tried a Ring On" is a heartbreaking anthem born of an era three years ago when many of the sisters' friends were trying to pick up the pieces after failing while at the precipice of either engagement or marriage.

"We flew to the sun but that high didn't last / It didn't work out, I ain't even mad about that / I'm sure I'll get over you being gone / I just feel stupid, I tried a ring On," they sing.

Confidence shines on their debut

Thinking that this album is filled with stereotypes and tropes baked into 100 years of country songwriting will leave a listener stunned by songs like "Leroy," "Move On" and "Stupid Prizes."

"Move On" is a song about women who desire to make the first romantic move in a relationship.

"Women should feel comfortable in having the bold confidence to demand what they want in life," says Kendra Slaubaugh.

"Leroy" — which falls somewhere between Erykah Badu's caustic, 25-year-old soul classic "Tyrone" and the inspiration of a myriad of hits from Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn — is a grooving anthem that proclaims that "the end of a relationship is not the end of the world," says Krista Slaubaugh.

"When your (partner) hasn't put you first and that's not what you deserve or want out of a relationship, maybe you should let them continue to call their friends instead of staying with you." Kendra Slaubaugh digs deeper into the album's content.

“I hope listeners feel like they could hang out with us on a Friday night or have a heart-to-heart on a Sunday morning, that every emotion you feel is valid, that some nights you want to go shoot tequila and some nights you want to cry over a boy who shattered you,” she says.

“At the end of the day, no one has it all together, and we're all figuring out how to navigate love, loss, friends, memories, self-love, confidence.”

Approaching and embodying pop's timeless crossover standard

Ask the sisters to discuss what inspires them most significantly and the answer comes off like a who's who of early 2000s pop-leaning country radio. Brad Paisley, Shania Twain and Sugarland are obvious. Dig into the album and a song like "Only Once" bears the direct influence of mimicking the vibe of Aerosmith's 1998 chart-topper "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing," blended with a key change found in Faith Hill's 2002 hit "Cry."

They're equally comfortable flipping those influences, as the breezy power-pop of Leona Lewis' 2007-released "Bleeding Love" gets a countrified cover on the album.

For the final few years that the duo worked fronting a band at Whiskey Row, their cover of a song that sold nearly 10 million copies worldwide was a showstopper. It achieves similar success on the album.

The duo excitedly note that alongside acts like Hill, Lewis and Twain, they're equally conversant in other female country and pop crossover stars of the era, including Kelly Clarkson, P!nk and more, whose "cheeky and almost sometimes funny" delivery of extraordinarily empowering anthems for women continues to inspire them.

"We're grateful to be at a fun place in our careers where we're able to win awards while achieving our lifelong dreams," says Kendra Slaubaugh.

"People are also positively catching onto our music — and given that this music is so directly about who we are, that feels good."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: ACM Award winners Tigirlily Gold release debut album 'Blonde'