Erin Kinsey '40 East' EP Review

Rising star Erin Kinsey has just released her debut EP, 40 East.

This Texan discovered her passion for music at a young age, and has been singing and songwriting ever since. Most of her high school career was spent traveling to Nashville to pursue her passion until she eventually found herself calling the city home. In addition to her singing ability Kinsey is also a skilled guitarist, a skill that she had further crafted once beginning to advance her career. Her strong social media presence has already given her a dedicated fan base in order to help her first few releases gain traction; this quick rise led to the creation of her introductory project.

40 East is follows Kinsey’s debut country radio single “Just Drive," a song she wrote with Michael August; the track that blew up her TikTok account with millions of views and thousands of likes. In her music Kinsey hopes to embody country lyrics with a gritty sound that is seen in pop and rock bands such as Paramore, something the artist is most definitely successful in doing. In total, there are six songs included on the EP:

1. “Just Drive” (Erin Kinsey, Michael August, Josh Ronen)

2. “This Ain’t Heaven” (Erin Kinsey, Michael August, Josh Ronen)

3. “I Got You” (Erin Kinsey, Barrett Baber, Lonnie Fowler)

4. “Hate This Hometown” (Erin Kinsey, Dave Cohen, Kathleen Higgins)

5. “Better On Me” (Erin Kinsey, Michael August, Josh Ronen)

6. “Just Drive” (Radio Edit) (Erin Kinsey, Michael August, Josh Ronen)

The common theme noted throughout the EP is that of the journey Kinsey has experienced in her career leading up to this point. Out of all the songs, the one that had stuck out the most in telling her story was “Hate This Hometown."

“When I drive down these roads I see you and me at sixteen / When I never could’ve known that coming back would be so sweet. / Every chance I get I want to go now, / Every memory makes me want to slow down, / You make it hard to make this hometown.”

In these lyrics, one can see Kinsey pay homage to the place that had raised her and allowed for her to become the person that she is today, along with the people that it had brought into her life. Though the pace of her life may begin to speed up following the release of 40 East, the importance of slowing down to the thought of memories from such a special place is one that seems to remind her of her roots and where she had came from despite what is to follow.

In the press release, Kinsey explained the importance behind the name of her debut EP. While traveling from Texas to Nashville nearly every month by her senior year in high school, “Highway 40 East is the road that gets me most of the way... it’s a road I’ve driven many times since I started coming to town with my family, my boyfriend, my friends, and Chewy (my dog).” These songs and the narratives captured within her storytelling, reflect Kinsey’s life as she blossoms under the spotlight.

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