Album Notes

Darl favors traditional country music, and shows it with his great traditional-sounding voice, reminiscent of Merle, Keith Whitley, and Waylon.


Darl Enga, native of Rugby, ND grew up on a farm/ranch as a cowboy, with country music on his mind. He watched the Opry faithfully every Saturday, and listened to country radio. He learned literally hundreds of country songs on his guitar by pure trial and error.

In high school, Darl was a bull riding champion and varsity wrestler. He attended National College in Rapid City, SD on a rodeo scholarship, studying Animal Health Technology. He picked up the guitar again after several years of not playing, and late night jam sessions got the country music feeling going again, although a job and a family ultimately occupied most of his time.

Darl worked as a technician in a large animal veterinary practice in South Dakota. Two years later he went back to school to earn a degree in Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University in Ames. While there he picked the guitar back up and started playing with a small acoustic band, which provided some dearly needed spending money, as well as feeding his passion.

Music was put on hold once again after earning his DVM to concentrate on practicing veterinary medicine. Darl ultimately joined a local country band and started playing on the weekends. A few years of lead singing and rhythm guitar playing for other bands later, he formed his own band, "Darl Enga and Best Bet." Best Bet soon became the hottest country band in the Sioux Falls area.

Finally, after seven years of practicing veterinary medicine, and a year with Best Bet, Darl decided to quit practice and move to Nashville, TN to pursue his true passion, country music, as a full time career.

Darl has just completed his second album, and has been getting positive reviews from country radio DJs. We think you will enjoy his style and singing ability! It's back to "Good Country Music."


Radio Program Director Review


Having been in country radio for 37 years, I can honestly say there have been only a handful of times I've received music by a local or regional artist that is this good.

In early 2002 I received a new CD, "Left For Dead", by Darl Enga. The party that brought me the CD said he was a local artist. I hadn't heard of him, even though I know many artists in the area. I thought to myself, "oh no, here's another artist I'm going to have to tell I can't play his music." I got around to listening to it a week later and was pleasantly surprised. Not only was it professionally produced, but great songs and a "doggone good singer".

I tracked the CD several times and decided to feature each cut for our "Sneak Preview CD" on KXRB. I contacted Darl and asked him to arrange for a local outlet before featuring it. He did, and listener response was tremendous. I understand the original stock sold out in several days and customers were waiting for the next shipment of CD's to arrive.

I'm particularly impressed with Darl's songwriting. He told me during an on-air interview, it's a lengthy struggle for him to write songs. I feel he should pursue songwriting vigorously! Listen to "Good Country Music" and "Time Hasn't Changed You." I hear lyrics my listeners can relate to and would like to be able to express as he has. Darl interprets lyrics of others with the same sincerity and emotion as those he wrote himself, as shown with "Even The Jukebox Cried" and "Safety In Numbers," written by Randy Albright. Pretty "heady" to cover songs like "North To Alaska" and "Me And Paul"...Darl pulls it off like a pro!

As I told Dwight Yoakam in 1986.."If you keep things on the straight and narrow, I think you have a great future in country music." Could it happen for Darl? Without knowing him personally, I feel the raw talent is there. With more studio time, and the right breaks, I'm confident he has the potential. After all, things didn't turn out too bad for Dwight.

Joe Morrison
Program Director
KXRB
Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Also, I had the chance of meeting another artist while recording in Nashville by the name of Danny Duvall. He is not only a very nice guy his album Gosbpel Mountain Music is great. Check it out here on CD Baby.