PAMELA HOPKINS

                                                               "Back When" 

                                                               Independent Release

With over 1.5 million streams on Spotify already to her credit, including 500,000 on her anthem tilted single “Givin’ A Damn (Don’t Go With My Outfit),” Pamela Hopkins has arguably carved out her niche and is making an impact on the independent country music scene.

Although the Little Rock, AR native has become well-known for her sassy attitude and songs that match it, she turns the corner a bit from her norm on her latest single “Back When” – a nostalgic run through the way it used to be.

The song, written by Hopkins, Clifton Prose, Dave Lenahan, and Melissa Leigh Johnson, begins with a catchy, clap-a-long groove that tugs you into the song as Hopkins quickly sets the tone for the entire message as she opens with the line, “Things were so much simpler back then.”

She then instantly transports you back in time to your childhood and strikes your nostalgic button as she runs through a list of the simple things that we all enjoyed as kids: riding bicycles, playing with our friends until the streetlights came on, and watching cartoons in our pajamas as the sun came up in the morning.

She uses each of the choruses to reminisce a little more personally, but still leaves the phrasing loose enough so that it stays ultra-relatable to the listener as she sings of catching fireflies in mason jars, sipping water from a hose, cheering on the home team even though they never won, etc.

What I love about the way that this song is written is how it advances time. Where the opening verse sings about being a younger child back when, the second verse moves us into the formative teenage years when she starts to reminisce about chasing boys, wearing make-up, and states in one of the lines, “I was 17, be home by 12.”

There’s a graphic that always pops up on my social media that reads, “I Miss The America I Grew Up In.” With so many things going on in the world today, this is certainly a sentiment that most of us can relate to. Pamela Hopkins has brought that meme to life so-to-speak, as she gives us a 3-minute break from all the negative surrounding us today and allows us to think back and smile as we remember our childhood while listening to “Back When.”

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)