Listen: Girl with a Hawk pens song inspired by vulnerability of addiction

This is an exclusive song premiere, part of WBUR's effort to highlight New England musicians.

Boston band Girl with a Hawk’s new single “Good Enough” might have a bouncy, upbeat feel, but it was birthed from a harrowing weekend. Lead singer and songwriter Linda Viens wrote it as she looked back on a time she spent with someone she cared for while they were actively detoxing from alcohol.

“I was just staggered by the human vulnerability of addiction, and the reality of coming face to face with it,” Viens says of watching someone “get this poison out of their system.”

Viens writes from a place of empathy and frustration, but not anger, as she tries to give a boost to a friend whose addiction was caused by self-doubt and insecurity — she sings how “I know Catholic School was rough/ And you were never good enough.”

“I think one of the hardest things to face is that we can't fix people,” she says.

The bridge features a dub reggae-like solo bass and horns that Viens jokes are almost “absurdly perky. I just wanted a part that was reassuring.”

In the song’s last verse, Viens sings that “Looks like you’re crashing hard, but you’re living still/ Ground to dust or a diamond, it’s always a work in progress/ Now you’re counting nine months sober, it ain’t over til it’s over!”

The original inspiration for the song ended up staying sober for one month, but Viens wanted a more optimistic ending. “The song is about lifting someone up,” says Viens, “and getting to a very simple place of saying that we love you, no matter what.”

“Good Enough” is one of the tracks on Girl with a Hawk’s powerful and well-crafted new EP “Keep ‘Er Lit,” which will be celebrated on Dec. 8 with a release show at The Burren in Somerville. The title of the record comes from an Irish expression for keeping faith, a notion that hit home for a band who signed a record deal with the Red on Red label right before its owner Justine Covault died suddenly at age 59. The Red on Red team of Covault and agent “Bootleg” Dan Anklin had actually booked Friday’s Burren show before Covault’s death in anticipation that the band would have a record finished by the time the date happened. The disc ended up being released on Rum Bar Records, a Boston garage label with an international following run by Covault’s mentor Lou Mansdorf.

“The idea of perseverance is really captured by that phrase — ‘keep ‘er lit,’ just keep it going, whatever it is that you do,” says Viens. “All of a sudden, without the pressure of our label, we could have said we don’t have to do the [Burren] date, we don’t have to have a CD in hand, but then your human pride kicks in and you don’t want to let Justine down.”

Like Covault, Viens was first active in the Boston rock world in the 1980s before taking time off to raise a family. Listeners wondering how such a fresh voice suddenly appeared on the scene may have seen her onstage without realizing it: She was a founding member of Boston Rock Opera and frequently appeared in its productions.

In 2017, she made an EP with the group Kingdom of Love, which also included Girl with a Hawk guitarist Richard Lamphear. Four years later, at an age where many would be more focused on retirement than making rock, Viens decided that “there was one more band in me. And a band where I called all the shots, where I had complete control.” She ended up also enlisting guitarist Daniel Coughlin, drummer Nancy Delaney and bassist Daniel Bernfeld.

“The thing about being in bands is it's often a group of strong personalities … I've been in a lot of collaborative situations that I've enjoyed, but I think as a woman it felt very significant to say that I've been around for a long time, and this time I'm not going to ask permission from anyone,” says Viens.

Girl with a Hawk plays The Burren in Somerville on Friday, Dec. 8, for an album release party with Cold Expectations. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door.

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