A great country song takes you inside the heart of the storyteller. Shawn Hawkins brings traditional country roots into the next generation, achieving a pure heartfelt story with every song. The emotions are genuine. You can feel the loneliness, the elation, the pain and the lament as if they were your own. Shawn’s songwriting skills and swaggering vocals come from a place where Waylon Jennings is still alive and pickin’. Backed by the full melodic styling of the Offenders lead players and rock solid rhythm section the Offenders can rock the house, swing you across the floor, or give you the blues - in a good way. They play to a diverse crowd, sharing the stage with such artists as David Allen Coe, The Derailers, The Seldom Scene and Little Big Town to name a few. You can hear the song “Ain’t No Use” in the gritty noir film “The Skin Horse”. The band’s first release, “Times Will Change”, finds the listener visiting empty bottles in motel windows, photographs of memories yet to be, gas station summers, freedom in an empty bed, and the pressure of pain. This is pure Americana accented with an empathetic fiddle, bluesy harmonica and soulful guitar licks that fall like teardrops.