Lori McKenna: 'Unglamorous'

Artist name: Lori McKenna
Album name: Unglamorous
Label: Warner Bros Records
Gender: Country/Folk
Release date: August 14, 2007
ZMErating: 8/10
Website: http://www.lorimckenna.com/

Lori McKenna is a mother of five from Stoughton, Mass. (pop. 27,000), about 20 miles outside Boston. Almost every info you can find about her begins with that and so when listening to the album you should not let yourself be influenced by that. Was not quite sure what to expect and when the first track began it sounded really wild; it was like an 18 year old rebel girl sang it and that says a lot about her spirit. Writing these knowing few about Nashville recent style is hard and it is hard to say what part of it is her spirit and what part was influenced by that style or by supporting Faith Hill and Tim McGraw.

The rest of the tracks is more subtile in its sense. It is about her world. Her world which is like a closed circle. The track Unglamorous is probably representative and sums the album. She is content with what she has; she loves her life with or without the spotlight. The authenticity is easy to notice and she is definetly a sincere and very gifted songwriter. The track “Your Next Lover” is a very sad and shows that vulnerability that you would not have noticed from her first tracks.

Her songs are thoughtful and consistent and they have a rich, textured tone. They just lack a bit of spark and a bit of spirit. The track “How to Survive” is probably inspired from something that she has lived since it is a slow deterioration of a relationship and that of the spirit. That explains why she lacks that bit of spark.

>>Stream: Lori Mckenna – ‘Unglamorous’

The guitar chords are mostly easy and they form a simple but remarcable sound which uses harmonies from McGraw. It covers her heavy-handed emotionalism in contemplative and finds that the sweeter things in life are found in the realities of blue-collar life. An artist to notice in the years to come and young singers have things to learn from her and the way that she aproaches music.

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