ERIN ENDERLIN

                                                               "If I'm Not In Hell" 

                                                               Black Crow Productions

Singer/Songwriter Erin Enderlin has a way with words.

Whether she’s singing about being a rebel child on her latest effort “Somebody’s Shot of Whiskey,” or weaving us into a dusty bar where she sings about contemplating cheating on “Tonight I Don’t Give A Damn,” Enderlin knows how to deliver poetic lines that invoke feelings and connect the listener with each song she releases.

This holds true on her new single “If I’m Not In Hell.”

The uber traditional country song, written by Enderlin, Kayla Ray, and Kimberly Kelly, leans against simple acoustic instrumentation that laces together with the whine of the fiddle and pedal steel to expertly deliver the sadness and pain that this heartbroken song calls for.

Enderlin brings us straight into the brokenness that comes from a relationship ending as she sings with raw emotion in the opening verse, “I’ve never felt this empty in the middle of the day.”

She then uses her words to weave us into her own personal hell that the breakup has caused as she sings of being reminded of him everywhere she looks; from his coffee cup to the bills that she can’t pay.

However, the lyrics turn up to perfection level when she delivers contradictory lines to describe her hell such as, “It ain’t full of fire like that preacher man said, it’s cold and empty as your side of the bed,” and then questions whether the pain and hurt that she’s experiencing are all part of God’s plan since it’s hard to tell if it is in the moment.

Where most songs tend to look for a resolve in the hurt and end on a happier note, Enderlin masterfully stays in the pocket of the much truer, sadness emotion instead.

You can feel her pain growing deeper and deeper with each passing line as she reveals another layer of how stuck she’s feeling and why she can’t move on, which perfectly captures the moment and becomes relatable to any of us who have experienced a breakup and are trying to uncomplicate the memories to understand the hurt we’re feeling.

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)

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