MAURA STREPPA - I Won't - Independent Release

While there isn’t a clear-cut blueprint for an independent act to follow, it certainly helps when you combine high profile co-writes, performance spots on well-respected rounds, and the ability to recognize when you need to change direction so that your path is sewn with truth through your songs and a unique honesty from within that only you can offer.

Though she made strides with 2021’s “Line Dance,” Illinois transplant Maura Streppa has since then been redefining who she is and who she wants to be as an artist and songwriter, culminating in 2022 with her EP The Singer and the Song and the poetically transparent, “Skinnier.”

She now delivers her first new music of 2023 with the brand-new single, “I Won’t.”

The song, co-written by Streppa, April Rose Gabrielli, and Jacob Kulick, leans against a melodic strum of acoustic guitar, borrowing the original demo to hold its raw authenticity as Maura utilizes the pure emotion of her voice to solidify the moving on from you lyric.

With cleverly written lyrics that sing straight at the heartbreaker in question, comparing his hidden loneliness to that of stage performer who is constantly putting on an act, Streppa delicately moves through the opening verse to strike a poetic twist when she exposes the cold hard fact that he’s now trying all the same lines on her that he’s used with so many other girls in the past, landing at the chorus on the back of the line, “Tell me babe how many times have you tried that line on…”

“The girl you went to after I said you can’t come over

The girl you call when you’re not sober

The unknown number on your phone

You tell me that I’m different and I am, I know

Cause everybody loves you but I won’t”

Continuing to expose truths throughout the second verse to uphold her outright rejection of him and his reputation, she understandably questions his angle and underlying motives when he tells her that he wants her, that he’s ready to hang his hat, and that he doesn’t talk to any other girls like he is talking to her.

Through an Americana branded folk sound, Maura Streppa continues to intriguingly open her next chapter as she drifts into a clear understanding of who she is, perfectly holding the emotions of the song through her vocals as you get the feeling that although it’s the right move for her to steer clear of him and his advances, that direction only comes after a broken hearted lesson learned, which adds additional depth to the already solid lyric.

In many ways “I Won’t” is a song of empowerment that shouts from the rooftops to know your worth, while also connecting heart to heart through her transparent vulnerability with those who are struggling to actually do the deed and turn away from something toxic.

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)

• Prev
• Next