Singled Out: Mitzi Dawn's Razor Blades and Whiskey

"We're like cocaine and a paycheck, like a rope and a lonely neck, a strong drug in a weak vein, mascara in the rain, yeah when you're with me, we're like razor blades and whiskey."

Two years ago, Angaleena Presley and I were set up on a writing appointment. We are both staff writers in town that are notoriously known for being dark! When we got together we were joking around about what we should write about... we talked about "it snowed in hell on Christmas day" and "my dog died on my birthday", being silly, and then I said "Razor Blades and Whiskey." We both looked up and said "Thats it!!!"

I was in a train wreck of a relationship, and recently sober, and she was experiencing a relationship as well. We started talking about deadly combinations.... I said "cocaine and a dolor bill" and she said "or cocaine and a paycheck", and it was on!

This song literally was an autobiographical lyric about exactly what was happening in my life. It was very healing to write. In a bad relationship, coming out of a bad addiction, and a string of bad decisions, we wrote this song like it was never going to be heard, and now its a single!

This song was the reason I wanted to do a record. I had been writing for other people (rpm, Tim McGraw's company for 8 years, and Doc McGhee for 2 years) but my dreams of singing my own songs took a backseat to my relationship, and addiction. Coming out of that fog, lost dreams reawakened and I had something to say, Something to sing, and its starting with Razor Blades and whiskey!

3 years ago, Angaleena Presley and I sat in her beat up clunker (my car was out of gas, and I didn't have any money) and her car had a mysterious smell... her baby had spilled milk, and she didn't find out till 3 days later. We sat there, and said "somethings got to give"... some one is going to hear our music one day.... We were frustrated and discouraged. Now 3 years later, Angaleena is in the group Pistol Annies with Miranda Lambert and Ashley Monroe selling hundreds of thousand of records, and I have a single out, about to release my record TRAINWRECKS AND PINK CLOUDS, and go on tour on my 45 foot tour bus with my face on the back of it!

A lot can happen in 3 years. For me Razor Blades and Whiskey is very special. Even though its been over 3 years since my last drink/drug, that song is just as valid. It shows where I was, what I went through, and it makes me grateful to have made it through that time with a little bit of grace and a whole lot of humility!