LORI MCKENNA

Unglamorous

2007-07-23

Lori McKenna lives in Stoughton, Mass. (pop. 27,000), and her MySpace page reads "Lori McKenna - Singer, Songwriter, Wife, Mother." She wrote three songs (including the title track) for Faith Hill's 2005 album, Fireflies, and she blends folk, rock and country with the ease of a mother spreading peanut butter and jelly on Wonderbread. And in her fifth album, she makes it clear that it's all about her unglamorous family. The first track, "I Know You," is a gritty portrait of Gene, her husband of 18 years ... "You have too much pride to be a thief, and just enough gut to be a fool." In the album's final track, "Leaving This Life," McKenna delves into sadness caused by her mother's passing (she was just seven at the time), and the title track is about her five children ... "with eyes just like mine" ... and a hectic family life that once involved driving the kids to school in a Ford Windstar minivan with 150,000 miles on it. – Sara Cosgrove

Quick Links:

More reviews tagged #Folk

  • reviewed 08/2012

    ADMIRAL FALLOW
    Tree Bursts in Snow

  • reviewed 10/2010

    JUDY COLLINS
    Paradise

  • reviewed 07/2017

    Jefferson Ross
    Live At Hillbilly Haiku

  • reviewed 08/2008

    KASEY CHAMBERS & SHANE NICHOLSON
    Rattlin' Bones

  • reviewed 05/2011

    YAEL NAIM & DAVID DONATIEN
    She was a Boy

  • reviewed 02/2012

    GINA FORSYTH
    Promised Land

Compiled by the WYCE Journalism Club

The opinions expressed in these reviews are those of the individual volunteers that submitted the article and do not necessarily reflect the views of WYCE or GRCMC; nor its staff, donors, or affiliates.