“He was raised in the holler where he worked for a dollar that was awfully hard to come by.” Is the opening line to Colton Bowlin’s new song “Don’t Come Home”. When I first heard this song, I got a Chris Knight vibe; from there, it started to remind me of Ray Wylie Hubbard’s “Wanna Rock and Roll.” Because at its core, “Don’t Come Home” is a murder ballad. However, after sitting and listening to the song a few times, I came to see that it is a unique song that only Colton could write. Colton said that the inspiration came from stories he had heard at a mill. I think this truly makes this song what it is, because you have these stories from people’s lives that Colton drew inspiration from to write this amazing murder ballad from the perspective of a feed mill worker. On the instrumental side, this song is fantastic; everything flows together perfectly. When Colton sings, the instrumentals are simpler, with a steady sound, and the lead guitar plays a great riff. Then, between verses, the instrumentals pick up and get more detailed. On the lyrical side of the song, it’s phenomenal. Colton paints a picture of the feed mill worker’s life with the cheating woman.

I love the way Colton doesn’t immediately come out and say what the song’s about. When writing a good ballad, it’s like writing a good story; you have to have an introduction of characters or at least of the main one, and that is exactly what Colton does. The first verse is all about the feed mill worker, who the song is about. It lays out how hard he works, how he is working for “very little pay and has a broken back is what he’s grown kin to. The second verse introduces the “dark-haired girl” who is his “green-eyed world that would soon tear his apart.” This second verse is where you find out she is cheating on him with the line “she didn’t only have his heart. She was sharin’ it with a few other men, and left him in the dark”. Now I’m not going to talk about each verse because I want you to go listen to the song, so jumping to the final parts of the song, this is where you find out he actually does kill her. I personally think the line “I’m drinking myself away, honey, I might do something wrong” starts to show the decision being made. Then comes the next line, “Best advice I could give tonight is honey, don’t come home.” Well, we already know this is a murder ballad, but I don’t want to skip the song’s last part. ” They got me locked in the pen for what I did, for what happened to her. But, I ain’t gotta worry about her runnin’ around this, I know for sure.” I think this is a great ending. I think it, weirdly, shows the love the feed mill worker turned killer had for the woman. I also think it shows how serious he was about her because she hurt him so bad that he was willing to kill her for doing him wrong. Overall, I love Colton Bowlin’s new song “Don’t Come Home”, and I hope everyone goes and checks it out!