Big-voiced Kentucky native Branden Martin is unapologetic about his boozy ways in his new single, “Drunk Again.” Press play below to hear the track, premiering exclusively on The Boot.
Co-written by Martin and Jerry Salley, and produced by Kyle Manner, “Drunk Again” finds Martin sleepless late at night, and surely headed for a hangover the next morning. “I can feel that whiskey burning way down in my feet / I don’t remember why I started, but I know this is where it ends / It’s two o’clock in the morning, and I’m drunk again,” he sings.
His now-gone love “told me she was leaving if I didn’t settle down / That there was no room for that bottle if I wanted her around” – so, he shares, “I helped her pack her suitcase, said maybe we can still be friends.” (Ouch.) In a “it’s not you, it’s me” twist, he adds, “You don’t have to love me, that’s just the way I am / I never waste a chance to get wasted with my friends” over a blues-influenced groove.
“I never hurt nobody, but one thing I know for sure / Is your life ain’t my business, so please don’t make mine yours,” Martin pleads, leading into an explanation plenty of us can get behind in 2020: “This whole damn world’s gone crazy, don’t judge me for the shape I’m in / It’s just my way of coping, and I’m drunk again.”
Martin and Salley were aiming for “a good ‘good time song,’ something a bar crowd could relate to” when they penned “Drunk Again.”
“I’ve done a bit of time in the bottle and [at] the bars in the past,” Martin tells The Boot, “so it was easy enough to put it down into lyrics: the troubles it causes, the good times it assists, and the escape it can sometimes provide.”
Bath County, Ky., native Martin is a self-taught guitarist who found his entree into the music business with a winning performance at Hoedown in the Holler’s new artist competition in 2014. He’s released two EPs, Live at Southern Ground and Thoughts From the Whiskey Bench.
“Drunk Again” is one track from a two-song ”digital 45″ that arrives on Tuesday (Oct. 27). The B-side, “Nevermore,” is a co-write with Leslie Satcher that tackles the darker side of the music industry. For more information, visit BrandenMartinMusic.com.
Listen to Branden Martin’s “Drunk Again”
10 Essential Albums for Your Country Music Education: