On The Row: Erin Kinsey Belts Her Heart Out To Reach Her Lifelong Dream

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Texas-born Erin Kinsey showed up at the MusicRow Magazine office recently with the prowess of a seasoned professional. Although the 22-year-old, multi-instrumentalist is newer to Nashville, she has devoted half of her life thus far to preparing for the country music limelight.

Her parents, though not musically inclined themselves, were overflowing with love and support for their daughter, signing her up for voice lessons over Skype and guitar lessons with a rock guitarist in Dallas.

Kinsey left her hometown of Rockwall, Texas the day after she graduated high school to fulfill a dream years in the making. Hitting the road soundtracked by one of her favorite songwriter Josh Kerr’s hits, her travels over Interstate 40 East inspired her, eventually lending its name to her debut EP, 40 East.

As she arrived in Nashville, she began growing her network and connecting with writers. By the time of her sophomore project, she was writing with Kerr, the very artist whose voice she echoed on her drive. He also produced some tracks on her recently released Bet My Heart EP.

Kinsey performed the best of Bet My Heart while visiting the MusicRow Magazine office, including the hit track “Boys In Boots.” Released during a cold January, this sunny country anthem has found big success. The track has resonated across the nation as a snappy, ear-tingling love song. It has also taken on a new meaning to some fans.

“‘Boots’ has turned into people talking about combat boots or their [partners] that are in the military. It has grown to mean so much more to so many more people,” Kinsey explained, beaming as she reminisced on the song’s success.

Kinsey pens heartfelt songs with stories full of her own life’s intricate details—she wrote “Boys In Boots” alongside Jordan Minton and Travis Wood. At first, she worried that her fans may not connect to the references to the Wrangles or cowboy boots in the song, but her fanbase put their own fairytale spins on it and kept singing their hearts out.

“You always hope that’s always what a song does—that it gets way out of control and way out of your hands—so it’s cool that this one has done that. It has been crazy. It really gained a life when we started playing it live.”

Kinsey worked with Kerr, Micah Carpenter and Sara Davis to write another track on Bet My Heart, “Stayed a Summer.” The relatable tune is about a summer love turned sour.

“It’s about a relationship that I was in, unfortunately, that was years long instead of being a really fun three months for everybody,” she muses. “At least I got a song out of it. Hopefully, you can’t relate at all but if you can, so can I.”

Kinsey says, “This is one was something that I really connected to. I started posting about it a little bit and I couldn’t believe how other people had connected to it.”

Kinsey also performed an acoustic yet high-energy rendition of her rock-inspired “Just Drive.” When writing the heavy-hitting crowd favorite with Josh Ronen and Michael August, the collaborators pulled inspiration from her childhood favorites Miranda Lambert, Eric Church and Paramore, putting heavy guitar riffs and rock motifs throughout. Kinsey celebrates this song as the one that changed her life.

Pictured (L-R): MusicRow’s Liza Anderson and LB Cantrell; Erin Kinsey; MusicRow’s Caela Griffin and Steven Boero

“I had not been posting on TikTok a ton at the time,” she remembers. “I was trying to be rebellious and different and not do it. I learned there’s a reason why everyone does and it’s silly not to.”

Kinsey’s audience on the platform is now around a quarter million followers, tuning in to hear sneak peaks of her latest projects. “Just Drive” was featured on SiriusXM The Highway’s On The Horizon earlier this spring.

Though the social media success has been a great asset to Kinsey’s career, leading to her signing at RECORDS Nashville, nothing has topped performing live. At the NASCAR Awards and Champion Celebration last December, she opened her high energy set with “Just Drive,” in a move she admits was a little on the nose for the racing event. Donning a black leather jumpsuit and putting her best guitar riffs on display, she rocked out with her fans to fully embrace the moment.

Now, the song has passed 37 million streams and Kinsey has been celebrating all summer. She is bringing her experience on the road back to Nashville writing rooms, as her live shows are the way she sees the response to her music firsthand.

With her music, Kinsey is leaving everything on the line, which inspired the title of Bet My Heart. “Every song on the project is about a time where I bet my heart and it was either a very good thing or a very bad thing. I couldn’t come up with anything that felt like it represented it better,” she says.

Her performance of her music proved this—Kinsey does not hold back when she is belting her heart out with skill and soul.

Caela Griffin
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