Who’s That Knocking At My Door

“I’m not a writer of songs,” said Pat Enright, 79, who, despite his declaration, was indeed the writer who penned the decidedly bluegrass song, “Who’s That Knocking At My Door,” first recorded by The Dreadful Snakes on the band’s only album, Snakes Alive! (1983, Rounder Records). 

Humble to a fault perhaps, Enright’s “only” solo write is a standout that would go on to have a strong impact. He is also listed as a cowriter on a few other songs: “Boys Are Back In Town,” “Boll Weevil” and “Connie and Buster.”

Along with these impressive writing credits, Enright has spent a career in bluegrass and is highly regarded for his distinctive vocals and session-level guitar picking. Both skills have made him a favorite in super groups such as The Dreadful Snakes, Nashville Bluegrass Band and others. (Fun Fact: you may also recognize his tenor harmony – and yodels! – as those of the character of Pete(John Turturro) in the blockbuster film, O Brother, Where Art Thou?)

Other artists have recorded “Who’s That Knocking,” among them Annie and the Hedonists, High Country and Monroe Crossing. And check out a popular online cover by The Cleverlys on their Larry’s Country Diner performance (countryroadtv.com). Another clever cover came in 1999 from the Czech Republic band Druha Trava (Czechmate, Compass Records). “They recorded an album in English and one in Czech, and the song was on both,” said Enright, who still finds himself surprised when someone asks him if he wrote the song. “I tell them it was me, but honestly, it was just a song. I seldom sang it and didn’t think much of it, but people kind of picked it up.” 

Derived from Delirium

Enright’s penning of the song has an intriguing backstory—an accident of sorts born out of difficult life events. In the early 1980s, he was living alone in a cabin in the woods outside of Nashville. “It wasn’t the best time of my life,” he recalled. “It was my big old dog and me, and at one point, I got really sick. I was delirious.” Thankfully, a friend checked on Enright during this time and, recognizing the severity of his illness, took him to a doctor. 

The doctor determined that the origin of Enright’s unusual illness was an everyday flea bite. It had given him the Bubonic Plague, a rare bacterial infection that, historically, made people go insane. “That sounded so medieval to me, but that’s what I had,” he recalled. “A shot of penicillin made it better.”  

Once back home, Enright noticed that he had written something on the notepad he kept by his bed. It was just one line – Who’s that knocking at my door? – but it was enough to spark his memory of what had happened during his delirium. “I remembered thinking I had heard someone trying to get into my little house,” he described, “… knocking on the doors and the windows and everything else.”

Drawing from the nightmares of his illness, and even more from how he was feeling at that time in his life, Enright began adding lines until his thoughts formed a finished and well-written song. 

Lyrics and Melody

Simple in structure, the verse and chorus melodies are the same. Still, the song packs a powerful punch. Its melody is conducive to the kind of strong, haunting harmonies that tug at our emotions. The sharp, weighty lyrics (see the sidebar) are highly relatable to us mere mortals, and as listeners, we’re hooked to the very last word. 

“Pat knows how to put words together,” said Mike Compton, Enright’s NBB bandmate (mandolin). “Every verse tells a story. Just recite the lines and let it sink in. It says plenty… and the imagery is so good. That’s besides the fact that the song is written in the traditional bluegrass/country blues format.” 

“Some have said the lyrics have a gospel feel to them,” said Enright, adding that while he could hear where they were coming from, that wasn’t intentional. “To me, it was just someone who does the wrong thing and liked it and kept doing it. It’s not a nice song. But whatever you hear in it, it’s okay with me.”

Enright took the finished song to his bandmates in The Dreadful Snakes. They recorded the song, and once it was out, a deejay’s enthusiasm helped gain it a little traction. “He had a radio show in the Washington, D.C., area,” Enright recalled. “When he heard the song, he liked it so well that he kept playing it … I mean all day long!” 

Big Praise from Fellow Pickers 

Enright grew up in Huntington, Indiana. A natural-born singer, he took up the guitar just out of high school, and while serving in the Navy, heard a banjo for the first time and soon fell in love with bluegrass music. He first played in a band in California in the late 1960s (The Tonto Basin Boys). In 1974, Enright moved to Nashville and became a fixture at the then-newly-opened Station Inn. Other bands he played with early in his career included The Phantoms of the Opry and The Tasty Licks. 

Friend and fellow super-picker Mike Bub first heard Enright on the Tasty Licks album Anchored to The Shore (Rounder Records, 1979). “Pat has always been one of my favorite singers,” he said. “Along with Pat, the album featured Jack Tottle, Mark Schatz and a young Bela Fleck. Pat’s version of ‘Weary Blues’ on this album got my attention, and the song became one of his signature numbers. Later, hearing him sing with Alan O’Bryant was electric; there wasn’t a better duo, both having great lead and tenor voices. Aside from Pat’s giant vocal contributions, he is responsible for finding many unique and undiscovered songs and bringing them to the bluegrass world.”

Compton also described his friend and former bandmate as “well-read and intelligent, with a sense of humor that is second to none.” He recalled Enright telling a story of how he lay in bed at night as a kid, listening to radio programs on two transistor radios, one in each ear for the “stereo” effect. “He heard those early FM stations when they played everything from Frank Sinatra to Bill Monroe and was probably the best arranger of material in NBB,” noted Compton. “He could make musical sense out of some of the more obscure recordings we adapted to the band. Pat’s rhythm guitar style was dead on as a clock and understated, almost invisible at times, at least until he stopped and then it felt like the whole left side of the stage fell off.”

Challenging Enright’s modesty on the subject, “Who’s That Knocking” has proven his skills as a songwriter. And while he may have been incoherent when he began writing it, his subconscious was apparently wide awake … and smart enough to reach out for pen and paper. I’m just one in a sea of songwriters, but I’ll venture to say that that alone makes Pat Enright a bona fide songwriter. 

In a similar sentiment, Chris Jones (Chris Jones & The Night Drivers), host of Sirius XM’s “Truegrass,” shared his thoughts on the song. “I love ‘Who’s That Knocking at My Door’ because it’s in the category of songs that have a classic bluegrass melody and yet are distinctive and recognizable at the same time. That’s a hard balance to achieve … I’ve heard this is Pat’s only solo write, which is hard to believe. The world is waiting patiently for the sequel!”  

Author’s note: Thanks to my friend and fellow song aficionado David Finch for reminding me of how much I love this song. If you have songs to suggest I explore, please send a note to me at [email protected]. I can’t promise an article will follow, but I will always love hearing about another great song.