If you know anything about country music, you know there are gatekeepers blocking the gates to radio play, touring slots, festival lineups, and awards. 

Feeling exhausted with the status quo, singer-songwriter Rebecca Porter penned a song titled “Honky Tonks Ain’t for Heroes” to vent her frustrations. “Build you up with a quickness / Then send you out into the night,” she sings. “Honky tonks ain’t for heroes / They’re for the lonely.”

“One chance to let go / One chance to get by,” she adds, a yearning tearing up her tone.

A solo written tune, “Honky Tonks Ain’t for Heroes” depicts the moment “when the toxicity of gatekeeping and the weight of discrimination felt like a chokehold on my growth as a vocalist, songwriter, artist, human being,” she shared on Instagram.

“Honky Tonks Ain’t for Heroes” follows “Happy Go Lucky,” released earlier this summer.

Listen to “Honky Tonks Ain’t for Heroes” below.

Originally from Virginia, Porter pushes back on the establishment. Growing up as a Pacific Islander woman was never easy. She faced discrimination at every turn, but she soldered forward anyway. She worked extensively with Harrisonburg-Rockingham County area musicians in and out of cover bands. When the pandemic hit, she began playing guitar and writing songs in a new way.

Porter released her debut EP, Prime Rainbow Conditions, in 2022. She is slated to issue the follow-up later this year.