Sir Woman kicks off North American tour at Meow Wolf

Funk and soul inspired singer-songwriter Sir Woman (aka Kelsey Wilson), a darling of the Austin music scene, kicks off her 2025 North American tour at Meow Wolf in Santa Fe on Saturday, March 15. Her backing band includes longtime collaborators and supporting vocalists Uncle Roy and Spice.

“I love Santa Fe,” Wilson said. “I actually wrote a lot of the new songs in Santa Fe at the El Rey (Hotel), so Santa Fe is like my hideaway home.”

Sir Woman’s tour follows the Feb. 21 release of “If It All Works Out,” the first half of her new double album. The second half, “If It Doesn’t,” comes out on May 16.

“It sounds like it’s albums for a good day or a bad day, but they both share the same purpose of making you feel good,” she said.

Sir Woman won Best New Act at the 2020 Austin Music Awards and Band of the Year in 2023. But she initially faced pushback from people in the music industry who thought her new direction was too different from that of her celebrated folk band, Wild Child.

“The main thing was people telling me you can’t start another (band). You have to choose,” she said. “Also, within the booking world, people were constantly like, ‘I don’t want Sir Woman, but here’s an offer for Wild Child.’ They were not really giving it a chance and then still booking Sir Woman at folk festivals and stuff just because they wanted Wild Child.”

Ironically, Wilson said these incongruous bookings ended up helping her career, because they allowed her to stand out.

“It would be a bunch of Americana singer-songwriters and then this one funk band. So, it’s actually kind of worked out,” she said.

Although Wilson has been touring with Wild Child for 15 years, she said, “I don’t listen to any folk or Americana, so it’s kind of funny that I’ve been in that world this whole time.”

Rather, her favorite artists — and her biggest inspirations for her work as Sir Woman — are Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin.

“I’m stuck in the ’70s and always have been,” she said. “It’s what’s always made me feel good since I was a kid.”

Wilson said she’s grateful for past artists who have not allowed themselves to be pigeonholed. She mentioned how Ray Charles fought to make a country album, and how Sly Stone crossed all barriers imaginable.

“Sly is one of my all-time favorites,” she said. “He’s the first person of color making psychedelic rock, then integrating disco and funk, just blending it all, and having a band with male and female and Black and white, and playing all kinds of music, which was the most mind-blowing, not-allowed thing within the music industry.”

In addition to crossing genres, as Sir Woman, Wilson has resisted pressures to change her appearance.

“Being a female is not easy in the industry if you don’t look a certain way,” she said. “And if you do look a certain way, you don’t even have to make good music. It’s really weird for women.”

Fortunately, she said her fans have always supported her.

“I feel like the audience knows who I am everywhere I go, like personally. Every night feels like a beautiful reunion,” she said.

Sir Woman has a fascinating origin story. Both the funk band concept and the name “Sir Woman” itself arrived in a moment of psychedelic serendipity.

“I was on tour with Wild Child in Florida at a really crazy EDM festival,” she said. “I don’t know how we were booked there. It was massive. And I remember The Funky Meters were playing at the same time as Snoop Dogg, who was headlining. I was like, I can’t believe The Meters are still touring! This is crazy! I’m gonna see them! And no one was there. Everyone was at Snoop Dogg.”

“I was on a lot of mushrooms, honestly,” she continued. “And I was having this really heavy musical experience. And I was like, I would rather be the band playing to no one and playing this kind of music that makes me feel so good!”

So, she vowed to form a funk band of her own.

Then, when The Meters finished, she headed back to the artist’s lounge.

“It was really cold, so I was bundled up in all these blankets, and the security guard couldn’t see that I had an artist badge. She was yelling at me. ‘Sir!’ Then, I turned around, and she goes ‘Woman!’ And the name just hit me in the face. ‘Sir Woman.’ It was immediate.”

Seven years later, the lineup of Sir Woman’s backing band has changed several times, but their feel-good grooves have only gotten funkier and their live shows more exuberant.

“It’s like a love party,” she said.

Sir Woman kicks off North American tour at Meow Wolf