Stoughton singer/songwriter Lori McKenna’s music has taken her all sorts of places: to stages large and small, Nashville’s recording studios, the upper echelon of the pop charts, even Oprah’s couch. But the critically acclaimed musician prefers to keep her focus on the domestic, taking the everyday and making it universal.
McKenna recently released Lorraine (Signature Sounds), a somber and emotional batch of songs named for the mother she lost as a little girl. She returns to the western part of the state for a performance at Memorial Hall in Shelburne Falls on Sunday, April 3rd, where she’ll be joined by special guest Lucy Wainwright-Roche.
McKenna grew up on the South Shore in a musical household and began playing and writing songs at an early age, inspired by her big brother, Richie. Her mother Lorraine, for who she was named, unfortunately passed away when McKenna was only seven.
Although she continued composing music, McKenna did not take her craft to the stage until she was nearly 30 years old and already a mother of three. The late bloomer—by musical standards—is certainly glad she did, and has a bit of advice for anyone in their mid-20s contemplating hanging up their instruments.
“Never, never do that,” she counsels. “If you are a writer, you will write no matter what. I never planned on leaving my house with my songs until I was 27. If I never made it to an open mic night, I would still be writing songs.
“There’s no need to ever let anything in life take that away from you.”
She quickly ingratiated herself into the Boston folk scene, where she befriended fellow musician Mary Gauthier. The latter moved on to Nashville and ended up sharing McKenna’s songs with a publisher who in turn shared them with country legend Faith Hill. Hill was instantly smitten, recording several of the tunes for her own album, 2005’s Fireflies.
Other big-name artists took notice and recorded their own takes on McKenna originals: megastars like Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood, Alison Krauss, Keith Urban and LeAnn Rimes.
Things accelerated from there, leading to a recording contract with Warner Brothers, an opening slot on McGraw and Hill’s Soul2Soul tour, and even an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show, an experience she calls “crazy surreal.”
While her music has brought her to amazing places, geographically and otherwise, lyrically she maintains a laser-like focus on home and hearth.
Is it a case of writing about what you know best?
“Sure, I think so,” she says. “But I would hope that if I worked harder on broadening my life, I would still be able to write about what goes on at people’s kitchen tables at 6 p.m. That’s still the stuff I am most drawn to.”
McKenna says that whether she’s writing for herself or other performers, she keeps to the same process.
“I have to,” she says. “I’m no good at completely stepping outside myself that way. I wish I could be sometimes. Mostly I just try to write what I like and hope other artists will relate.”
One of her keys to success is incessantly working on her craft, because one never knows when the magic might be there waiting.
“I check my guitar every day to see if there is a melody hanging around in there,” she says. “Then I mumble lyrics—dummy words—and see if something I can play with comes out.”
There’s also the precarious matter of balancing home life with the oddball demands of a career in music, something she’s been able to manage with aplomb.
“I make my own schedule, thankfully,” she says. “I miss opportunities sometimes but that’s okay because my kids are my priority. I also write almost all my songs from home. So I have the blessing of being able to do what I love and still keep my travel and home life in balance—most of the time.”
After an amicable split with Warner Brothers, McKenna finds herself back with Whately label Signature Sounds, run by Jim Olsen and crew.
“Signature Sounds have been such a big part of my career,” McKenna says. “Jim Olsen is a music champion in my opinion. Anything he does is for the love of music. There are not a lot of labels like that.”
Indeed, the feeling’s mutual, as the label chief is a longtime fan of the musician he has seen blossom virtually from the beginning.
“It’s been pretty amazing to watch Lori’s career path, from local coffeehouse folkie to one of the most sought-after songwriters in Nashville while raising five kids in Stoughton, Mass.,” says Olsen. “She has a gift of for capturing the emotional resonance of life’s small moments with an eye for detail that is unmatched in the country music world. For me she is the closest thing we have to a female Springsteen, an artist that chronicles the everyday American experience in song.”
McKenna in fact cites Springsteen, along with Tom Petty, as her main songwriting heroes. These days she says she also draws a great deal of inspiration from contemporaries like Mark Erelli and the aforementioned Mary Gauthier.
Now, at roughly the same age as her mother was when she died, McKenna is supporting an album inspired by and about maternal influence. The experience of writing and recording was a trying one.
“It’s not a dance record,” admits McKenna. “It’s more of a memoir than a romantic comedy. It’s pretty personal. Emotionally heavy—but there’s always a silver lining.”
What would her mom think about her music, and all she’s accomplished in life?
“I bet she’d be proud of me for doing what I love,” McKenna says. “I’m not sure how else she would feel, honestly. She is still a bit of a mystery to me.”
Lorraine is a deep rumination on a woman McKenna wishes she had had a chance to get to know better. Album ender “Still Down Here” is a prayer similar to the ones McKenna used to whisper as a child, a hymn to those who have gone from this life, and a hope that they are still looking out for the ones they’ve left behind.
Lori McKenna performs at Shelburne Falls’ Memorial Hall April 3, along with Lucy Wainwright-Roche. For more information, visit http://lorimckenna.com.
