Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Erin Enderlin
Four Minutes, Four Questions
It has been a busy month for singer-songwriter Erin Enderlin. The Conway native’s new EP, “Barroom Mirrors,” was released Oct. 15, which was also when she played the Grand Ole Opry on a bill with John Conlee, Bobby Osborne & Rocky Top X-Press and Connie Smith. And she was part of a star-studded lineup for the virtual Johnny Cash Heritage Festival that included Sheryl Crow, Darius Rucker, Chris Stapleton, Vince Gill, Margo Price, Keb’ Mo’ and others.
Enderlin, who produced “Barroom Mirrors,” has had her songs recorded by Alan Jackson, Luke Bryan, Lee Ann Womack, Randy Travis, Gene Watson, Bill Anderson and more. She’s an 11-time winner at the Arkansas Country Music Awards, including entertainer of the year in 2021, and has won songwriter of the year every year since the awards began in 2018.
“Barroom Mirrors” is the 39-yearold Enderlin’s fourth album and follows 2019’s “Faulkner County.” It is, unsurprisingly, straight-no-chaser country with plenty of whiskey, a “Blue Ribbon morning” after “a Black Label night,” troubled romances and jukeboxes. The six-song set features duets with her pals Terri Clark and Cash, Enderlin’s crystal clear vocals and sly way with words.
A week before the release of “Barroom Mirrors,” Enderlin, who has a sneaky sense of humor, answered a few questions from the Nashville, Tenn., home she shares with husband Neil Zacharuk.
You sing with Terri Clark on “If There Weren’t so Many Damn Songs” and Rosanne Cash on “Cut Through Me.” Did you write those songs with them in mind?
I didn’t, but Terri has become a good friend of mine. She sang harmony on a song on my last record. I don’t know if you’re familiar with this pandemic thing going on, but most folks weren’t out playing shows [laughs]. Since Terri was home, I asked if she would come sing this song with me.
I haven’t actually met Rosanne in person, but she got a hold of my last record and really liked it. She reached out to me at the craziest part of the pandemic and sent some nice emails that encouraged me, so I asked her if she would be interested in singing on a song. I’ve always loved her voice. She has this great vibrato, but her voice is so rich that it’s a different kind of thing.
The first track, “Somebody’s Shot of Whiskey,” really gets things going. Is there a story behind its origin?
I was playing a fair in Kansas and it was approximately 1 million degrees outside [laughs] and I saw a woman with a T-shirt that said ‘I’d rather be somebody’s shot of whiskey than everybody’s cup of tea.’ I was like, ‘Yes, I get this.’ I filed it away and pitched it to a bunch of folks, but nobody bit.
When I started this project I knew that was one I wanted on here. I love the vibe of it. I started writing with Ben Chapman, and it might have been the second song we wrote together. He’s got this great, Willie Nelsonhippie-funk vibe. When I threw it out to him he said: ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’
What about “If There Weren’t So Many Damn Songs”?
I wrote that with Kayla Ray. It was during the whole pandemic weirdness and we were both kind of in a songwriting funk, so I said: ‘We have to write a song this week.’ She had been procrastinating and then threw this thing together and sent it to me and it was the beginnings of that song. We got together and we tweaked it up and added a bridge and the rest is history.
Have you ever written short stories or other fiction?
I’ve played around with it, definitely in high school and college. I’d like to get back to it at some point. There’s no timeline, but I have been starting to collect some of my stories [about] things I’ve done and been a part of here. And I’ve been writing little pieces on each of these characters from [“Barroom Mirrors”]. But I’ve gotten to do so much cool stuff here in Nashville, it would be fun to put out a book about that.