Growing up in southern California, Kim Lenz was exposed to a different world than most of us with a mother who proudly reckoned herself a rodeo queen and a father who held a fanatic love of Wolfman Jack. Not one to shy away from music, she studied the piano as a child and the guitar as a teenager. Lenz grew up listening to Janis Martin, Wanda Jackson, Charlie Feathers and Johnny Horton, people who helped shape her love of music and, more specifically, rockabilly.

While majoring in psychology at the University of North Texas, Lenz joined a group of singers and musicians, helping form Rocket, Rocket. The group disbanded within a year, but the experience left a seed inside Lenz that inspired her to move to Dallas and eventually pull together her own band. The Jaguars consisted of Tom Umberger on lead guitar, Shawn Supra on bass fiddle, and Scotty Tecce on drums. Their debut EP caught the attention of Hightone records, which signed the retro ensemble and put them back in the studio under the vintage-loving ear of producer Wally Hersom, also known as the bassist for Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys. Kim Lenz & the Jaguars have gained a worthy reputation as a rockabilly buzz band with high-energy live performances, earning Lenz ‘Best Female Vocalist’ in 1997 by the Dallas Observer.