Ennis Hawkins is a barfly without the blues in his country earworm, ‘Don’t Drive Home’ –

Ennis Hawkins flipped the script on car-radio-ready Americana with his latest infectiously rhythmic country-rock release, Don’t Drive Home. The True-Blue troubadour of salacious riffs and soul-rife euphoria invites the airwaves to settle inside the bar that became a sanctuary of a second home, where loneliness knows company and light key melodies catch the warmth that breeds between bodies, beer and familiar faces.

The single carries the loose joy of a song that found its shape before doubt could interfere. Hawkins penned the lyrics in an organic rush of inspiration at Happy Harbor, the kind of local haunt that gives the track its ability to make you feel right at home at a place you’ve never been, before he refined it in a Florida studio and sent it out into the world with the strange pride of releasing something deeply personal.

Following his first release, Don’t Drive Home shows a brighter, more rhythm-led side to Hawkins without sanding down the emotional sincerity at the centre of his writing. The strum pattern feels natural, the chorus lands with easy communal lift, and the whole thing makes you want to pull up a seat in your local haunt and become a barfly on the wall to the beauty of connectivity and shared small-town release.

Don’t Drive Home is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast