Emma White Gets Personal in 'That's Why I Drink' Live Performance

Emma White has released an intimate new live performance of her powerful song "That's Why I Drink," and she's letting Taste of Country readers see it first in this exclusive premiere.

White co-wrote "That's Why I Drink" with Brinley Addington and Neil Medley, and the track reached the Top 50 on the Music Row chart after she released it in September of 2019. The lyrics detail the reasons the narrator tries to escape reality by drinking, which are really all just excuses in the end.

"That's why I drink / To get lost / To not think / To get gone / Get out of my head take off the edge for a little while / Not to get drunk / Just unwind and untangle my mind / I try to remember / I try to forget / That's why I drink," White sings in the chorus.

She filmed the live clip below at OurVinyl Studios in East Nashville, giving the already personal song new urgency.

White says "That's Why I Drink" derives from her own personal experience.

"I learned a lot about alcoholism growing up, tagging along to AA meetings as a kid, and grateful to have a parent that got into recovery before I was born. It’s a disease that has had a huge impact on my family and my own relationship with alcohol," she shares. "There was a point where I finally understood firsthand the generational battle with the substance and worried about my own habits. Writing this song came out of me trying to make some justification, even though I knew better."

White debuted in 2019 with the release of "Ten Year Town." She teamed with entrepreneur Jennifer Coyle that year to launch her own female-focused label, Whitehouse Records, and released her EP, The Actress, in September of 2019. "That's Why I Drink" introduced her to an entirely new audience.

"This was my first single at country radio as an artist and label," she tells us. "It was fun to learn a little more about how radio works and attempt a virtual radio tour on our first single!"

For more information about Emma White, visit her official website, or keep up with her via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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