When a 19-year-old Sadie Bass drove down from her hometown of Bath, just outside of Lansing, to attend the Michigan country music festival Faster Horses, she could only dream of one day playing on that stage. That same year, Bass decided to seriously pursue music as a career, leaving college behind. In the past few years, the 27-year-old singer and songwriter has released six studio singles, made appearances on television shows like “The Voice,” and hustled to write songs and build her stage presence.
And now, her dreams are coming true. She’s a performer at this weekend’s Faster Horses festival, the three-day music and camping festival held at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, which features headliners Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson and Hardy.
Also on the bill are sisters Krista and Kendra Slaubaugh of North Dakota duo Tigirlily Gold. Along with Grammy winner Wilson, 2023’s CMA Award winner for Entertainer of the Year, these female artists are making a name for themselves in a genre that is known for being particularly harsh on women. In 2022, women received only 11% of all airplay on country radio stations, a metric that many consider to be make or break when trying to break into the industry. But despite facing steeper odds, there’s not much that can stop a determined singer.
Tigirlily Gold found success with their 2023 single “Shoot Tequila” and were named ACM New Duo of the Year and the 2024 CMT Next Women of Country. Their album “Blonde” will be released on July 26.
Both Tigirlily Gold and Bass have a chance to shine this weekend at this weekend’s festival. The Detroit News jumped on a Zoom call with the Tigirlily sisters and Bass to talk about their journey through the country music industry as female artists, where they find inspiration for their songs and Bass’ thoughts on playing at a festival she once attended. Questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Can you tell me about your journey into the country music industry?
Kendra: We’re from North Dakota originally. We grew up singing together, by the ages of 14 and 16 started our band Tigirlily and started touring around the Midwest, and then eventually moved to Nashville in 2017. We got down here, started playing down on Broadway Nashville for about three years, doing the four-hour cover gigs, then signed a record deal about three years ago now. It’s just been a crazy journey since then. This journey has been 11, 12 years of us hustling to get to this point.
Sadie: I started really doing music when I was 19. I was seeing that everybody who was trying to make music was moving to Nashville, and everyone said if you want to do music, you got to move down, so I’ve been down there for three and a half years. I wasn’t very good at first, but I really started sharpening my writing skills, then once I got comfortable onstage things have really gone uphill since.
Country music has not always been kind to female artists. For example, in 2015, radio consultant Keith Hill advised radio stations to not play too many songs by women, likening their music to “the tomatoes of our salad” rather than the lettuce. How has your experience been as a woman in this male-dominated industry?
Krista: Honestly, we’ve always told each other we have to believe if you are very talented and you stick it out long enough and you’re good to people, you will break through. Because if we don’t believe that, what are we doing here? If you look at simply some of the statistics of all this, it can be very daunting. It may take longer, maybe be a little harder for the industry to catch up with women in country music, but none of us are quitters here, so once the industry catches up with you and fans start recognizing that I feel like females in country music have really good staying power.
Sadie: I think the music speaks for itself, so if you’re writing, you’re putting in the time in your music’s the best, then it’s gonna stand out. I think the best thing of advice is just to go in there with your head high and be like, “I respect you, so I expect the same thing in return,” and the second you don’t see it, you walk away.
Have you found support from other women in the country music industry, and how important is this sort of support system for you?
Kendra: Thankfully, we’ve always had each other so we have a built-in support system, but it’s been really awesome just to see these females in country music be so kind to us and reach out and offer advice. To have those female relationships and those people supporting you along the way, it really does matter, because they’ve all been through these experiences before. To have these relationships, it’s really incredible and so helpful.
Sadie: I feel like I have more male artist friends, but all the females that I know have been so cool, because we all know what it’s like. When we see each other, we’re like, “Girl, keep rolling,” because we know how tired we are. We all just pay our respects and encourage each other.
You all are working so hard, you’re so busy – how do you keep the motivation, the inspiration, your love for the music alive?
Krista: We may be tired, but we’re never tired of what we get to do because it was all we wanted to do for a living. I think it all stems from that, because at the baseline, if Kendra and I can do music our whole lives and never have to do anything else, that’s been our whole goal. No matter what I do I would still be tired, so I might as well be tired doing this. And honestly, we are still after 11 years of doing this experiencing so many firsts still. Getting to have these moments like the ACM awards and our first DMT nominations this year, and we’re releasing our debut album in a few weeks, all stuff we haven’t done. I still have so many dreams, so many goals I want to accomplish and so it’s still so much fun.
Sadie: I think part of the best thing about this industry is it’s never the same. It’s always growing. It’s addicting, being that sponge and just learning so many things. But I think the big thing that all the artists are trying to figure out is how to balance it all at the same time.
Where do you draw inspiration for your music from?
Krista: We write all our songs together, so a lot of it either comes from my personal experience or Kendra’s personal experiences. Also, sometimes I’ll be having a conversation with people and they’ll say something interesting. When we wrote our song, “Tried a Ring On,” a lot of our friends were going through breakups, and there was this common theme that we wrote about.
Sadie: Same thing for me, I like to call it “bringing my songwriter with me.” Everywhere I go, now I have such an eye for where I’m listening for somebody to say something I haven’t heard before, or I see a picture or view and look at it later and write some random lines to it. At first I was always writing for just me, something I would say or something I’ve experienced, so I had a hard time writing outside of that. But then I realized the cool part about our job is it’s kind of like acting. You can put yourself in that story and still write the story just as good.
Sadie, you’re from Michigan and you’re coming back to play Faster Horses. What does it mean to be able to play at this festival in your home state?
Sadie: I went to Faster Horses at 19, 20, 21, and I remember being in the crowd and looking up and me and my friends kind of joked that maybe you’ll be up there one day. I always just thought about it, and then from 19 until now, 27, every year people would ask me, “When are you playing Faster Horses?” It got to a point where I was dreading it because I didn’t know if it would happen, and finally it’s frickin’ happening. It’s so exciting too because it’s a side stage, so I get to experience that, and then I can set the goal to do the main stage once I get more of this frickin’ music out. So it really is surreal. I can’t believe that it actually is happening.
Krista: Faster Horses has always been on our bucket list, so we can’t believe we’re gonna be there on the main stage. So many of our favorite people are going to be there too. We love our Michigan fans, they’re so awesome and they love country music so much. We’re so excited to have a little party, shoot some tequila and do the thing.
What can we expect from you in the coming months in terms of new music, projects?
Krista: Our debut album “Blonde” releases July 26, and for Faster Horses stay tuned because we have something really special planned for that. A lot of touring, we’re hopping on a lot of people’s tours, and our own headlining stuff. But honestly, we’re already writing for the next record. Always creating!
Sadie: I haven’t put out music since last summer because we’ve been stockpiling, and I’m trying to do it right this time. But once I open that floodgate, it’s going down.
Sadie Bass performs at 1:50 p.m. Saturday on the Next from Nashville Stage, Tigirlily Gold performs at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Main Stage.
Faster Horses
Friday-Sunday
12626 US Highway 12, Brooklyn
Tickets: General Admission $289 for all three days, no single day passes available