“Broken”
“Till It’s Gone”
“Tonight I Don’t Give a Damn”
Those three tracks all make an appearance on singer-songwriter Erin Enderlin’s brand new EP Chapter One: Tonight I Don’t Give a Damn, and with the videos, she hopes that listeners will get a feel for all the ways one woman can fall in and out of love.
In a conversation with CMT.com, Enderlin revealed a little bit more about herself, her music and the thinking behind the story told in these three songs.
CMT.com: There are so many people who have gone through what the main character has gone through in this trilogy, and everyone has their own way of dealing with suffering. Who came up with the storyline of a woman facing hers with reckless abandonment and a highway cowboy whose kisses taste like smoke?
Enderlin: I think it was just where the songs took me. I like to capture moments in time. At this moment, the character is kind of reverting back to the only things she’s known. She’s going through such a tough process, and while she’s starting to make decisions that will take her to a better place, she’s also reaching for familiar crutches to numb the pain. But this is just a moment in time, by no means the end of her story.
Since you wrote “Broken” by yourself, can you tell us what inspired this song?
I feel a lot of responsibility singing this song. It’s not my story. I was lucky enough to work doing some peer counseling in high school and college, and this is a story inspired by so many of the young women’s stories that I heard.
And on “Till It’s Gone,” who came up with the lyric about burning up all her chances with a book of motel matches?
Damn, that line is pretty great! I think that was actually a combination effort. I wrote that song with Jim “Moose” Brown and the incomparable Jon Randall.
Lastly, “Tonight I Don’t Give a Damn” sets a scene from the first line on, which makes sense because your storytelling has always been theatrical. Was that your intention on this song?
I’ve always loved the deceptively simple approach to writing. Just enough images and direction for the listener to make it their own, and really see it in their mind. I like thinking about songs like tiny movies, the way you can use words to set the scene.
Reba McEntire just recorded your song “The Bar’s Getting Lower” for her Stronger Than the Truth album. What does that do for your confidence as a songwriter, knowing that living legends depend on you for solid country songwriting?
It’s really a huge honor to have that caliber of artist, that I look up to, connect with something I’ve written so strongly that they choose to record it. I’ve been really lucky to have such a great heritage of country writers to study, and even have the opportunity to write with many of them and learn from watching them work. Folks like Larry Cordle, Kim Richey, Melba Montgomery, Matraca Berg, Leslie Satcher, Bill Anderson, Randy Scruggs, Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell, and so many more taking the time to write and share their talents with me has had an immeasurable impact on how I write songs.
Up next for Enderlin will be the next three EPs — Chapter Two this June, and Chapter Three and Chapter Four before the end of the year — and a long list of tour dates throughout the spring and summer.