The rockabilly revival circuit may be full of beautifully painted ladies, but only a few feisty females have picked up the torch lit by early guitar-wielding, glass-ceiling crashers like Wanda Jackson. Among those leading the charge is the flame-maned Kim Lenz, who began recording and touring with her backing band, the Jaguars, while living in Dallas in the mid-'90s.
Her 1998 self-titled debut album for Hightone Records established Lenz as one of the most butt-kicking, nimble-fingered, powerful new voices not just in rockabilly but in the independent rock 'n' roll scene at large. Though an equally lauded follow-up album dropped in 1999, Lenz's recorded output since then has come at frustratingly long intervals. The third disc didn't see the light of day until 2005, and then she went quiet again.
In 2009, though, Lenz assured fans she had officially come out of a touring and recording hiatus and released a new album, It's All True!, on Riley Records. The 12 new songs showed that the fire was still there, and with the freshly back-together Jaguars, Lenz continues touring to support it. Friday's show marks a rare South Florida appearance at the Monterey Club, of course. Excellent support comes from Miami scene vet Russell Mofsky, whose local punk pedigree bleeds through the surfabilly edges of his new project, Gold Dust Lounge.
