MAE ESTES - What I Shoulda Done - Big Machine Records

Influenced by her early years of pounding the pavement and navigating the countless, neon lit honky-tonk nights, Mae Estes’ first new music in two years washes her traditionally branded influences against a 90’s country infusion that wraps itself into a rollicking, barn burned anthem for the poor choice makers.

“What I Shoulda Done” is out now via Big Machine Records.

The song, written by Estes, Paul Sikes, and Autumn McEntire, radiates a rawness of truth and consequences as it blasts your speakers with an unapologetic, throwback rhythm that accents Mae’s unbridled sass with a combined tone that holds the shrug of her shoulders aura, facing the mirror of the shoulda, coulda, and woulda while metaphorically winking to the “what she did instead.”

Surrounded in an irresistible, hip popping groove, her signature drawl captivates each of the verses, trailing a list told from her now perspective of knowing what she should have done in specific situations when looking back on them today; from stopping after throwing back her first Rolling Rock to running far away from a guy who she knew was no good for her.

Quizzically wondering, “Now should I be concerned that I never learn?” while flanked in the full confessions that she’s picked a fight or two and kissed some lips she shouldn’t have kissed, the boot heel jump that clicks the chorus immediately induces a fiery two-step feel that transports you to a sawdust covered dancefloor as she mischievously smiles a sly grin:

“But what I shoulda done and what I went a did

I should know better, but I do the opposite

It’s a habit that I don’t know how to kick

Cause what I shoulda done

Ain’t what I went and did”

There’s no doubt that a 90’s country evolution is in full swing right now, and Estes masterfully walks straight down the middle of it with “What I Shoulda Done,” grabbing you by your shirt collar to tug you out to the Friday night dance hall floor with a feel that not only freshly fits alongside the modern era, but that also stands out as uniquely her in a definition of authenticity over a 3-minute snapshot of who Mae Estes is.

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)

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