Those Darlins Teach Their Rocking Ways to Young Girls

The women of Nashville's cowgirl-punk outfit Those Darlins may appear to be s---kicking, spur-slamming badasses (and they probably are), but for at least one week every year, Jessi Darlin hangs up the persona to teach shy little girls how to rock out: After attending the Southern Girls Rock and Roll Camp for four years starting at age 12, Darlin now volunteers at the camp every year.

The girls in the camp form a band on Monday and play their first gig that Friday, and Darlin' helps them get from Point A to Point B. "We just finished camp after getting home from tour the day before camp started," Darlin tells Spinner. "It was a crazy schedule switch from staying up till 4AM every night to teaching little girls from 8:30AM to 6PM, but we made it through and it was totally worth it."

Darlin credits the camp for giving her the courage to rock so hard and now, as an adult, she tries to instill that in the current campers. "The feeling of giving a kid or an awkward teenager that experience and being able to hand them the microphone or tell them to hit the drums harder or turn their guitar up because they sound awesome is so rewarding," she says. And look where it got her -- the last thing Those Darlins need to be told nowadays is to hit it harder or turn it up; they already have their amps at 11.

Darlin says that the recital, er, gig at the end of the week is bittersweet. "The show is always the best show I see all year," she says, and she's not even being ironic. "This year, a band was so good it made me cry. I had plenty of laughs, and there were bands that made me want to dance and to scream. It's got everything, and I can't wait to see these ladies grow up and go out into the world and kick butt."