About this Event

Kelsey Wilson has never been able to escape the pull of music. At the early age of 4, she began playing violin and quickly became fascinated with her family’s expansive record collection. Growing up homeschooled with a mother whose life had been embedded in the gospel church, Wilson found herself immersed in the genre and became enamored with R&B; and gospel artists like Otis Redding, Billy Preston, Aretha Franklin and Nina Simone. It wasn’t until her teenage years that she was introduced to genres like country rap and pop. “None of it really hit after so many years of what I was listening to, so I just implanted gospel into my brain.” While Wilson never thought she would be a professional musician, life had other plans. In the early 2010s, Wilson found momentum as the lead vocalist and violinist of the Austin-based Americana outfit Wild Child. “I was writing songs with someone who played the ukulele, so I realized that I could fit melodies and words over the chords he was playing and it was really easy.” Throughout their 14-year tenure, the group released five albums and has toured with artists like Mt. Joy, Robert Ellis and Shakey Graves. Because it was “easy,” Wilson believed that she was supposed to be making folk music. After all, the band has found moderate success over the years, from movie and TV show placements to commercial jingles. But the music didn’t feel “authentic” to Wilson. “I wasn't being my genuine self,” she says. Still, she didn’t know what kind of music she would make if she was in complete control. In 2018, the year before lockdown, she penned what would be the first Sir Woman record — several songs that didn’t quite fit in the Wild Child world. At the time, she didn’t intend to create a band or touring the record. “I just wanted to make an album that sounded like me entirely.” The name of Wilson’s rollicking solo project fittingly came to her just as Wild Child was playing the last festival before their hiatus. While roaming around the festival grounds, a security guard yelled at her, calling her “sir” and “woman.” Something clicked: It was the song that she had been singing in a dream the night before, the character she longed to create. “It felt so appropriate and reminded me of Motown, just classic but powerful. It was everything that I didn't really get to express in Wild Child.”