The songwriter behind Little Big Town’s ‘Girl Crush’ is having her ‘moment in the sun’
Lori McKenna already won a Grammy and wrote a No. 1 song this year—and now she's releasing an album of her own.
When Little Big Town came to Boston this month to headline the Boston Pops Fourth of July celebration on the Esplanade and perform with Luke Bryan at Gillette Stadium, the foursome’s Karen Fairchild said there was one person in particular the band wanted in the audience at both their shows: Lori McKenna.
You may not know her name, but you’ve probably heard one of the top country songs written by the Massachusetts mother of five. She’s penned lyrics for some of country’s biggest names, including Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Hunter Hayes, and Little Big Town since her career took off in 2004.
Now, she’s toggling back to focus on her own career after almost two years, releasing her newest album, The Bird & The Rifle, on Friday—a much deserved “moment in the sun,” according to Fairchild.
“It’s not surprising to me that [McKenna] would be having a moment in the sun with a song of the year last year, and what I think is going to be song of the year this coming year,” Fairchild said. “[Nashville] has known it, and I’m sure Boston has known it for a while, that she was going to have her moment in the sun and that moment is now.”
McKenna’s list of songwriting accolades includes a two-time Platinum Billboard No. 1 hit, “I Want Crazy,” by Hunter Hayes, and radio favorites like Tim McGraw’s “Humble & Kind” and Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush,” which reached 11 weeks on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs and netted McKenna a CMA award, and her first Grammy.
“I texted her when we were coming to do the Pops thing saying, ‘You have to come down here and do this with us, with your family, because we are singing ‘Girl Crush’ with the Boston Pops in your hometown and it doesn’t get any sweeter than that,'” Fairchild said.
“And it was the same thing at Gillette,” she added. “She told me she got emotional listening to the crowd singing it back because there were almost 100,000 people between the two nights, just singing that song. Just the power of it and the emotion of people making that their anthem. I know how much that meant to Lori just sitting out there listening.”
McKenna said she never expected her songs to be sung by crowds in filled arenas, nor did she ever expect to be commuting back and forth to Nashville each month to write with the collaborative group The Love Junkies. She actually never expected to share her music with anyone outside of her own Stoughton home at all.
“I never really planned on leaving my house with it,” McKenna said. “I was like 27 or 28, and I sang at open mic nights in Boston and around the area. … It’s really because of the community of musicians we have in this area that I think I was able to make a career out of it. Otherwise, I think it would have been this love that I have that I just did on my own.”
McKenna began performing at open mic nights and small shows around the city over 15 years ago, particularly finding confidence and support in the basement of Harvard Square’s Passim.
“I have a job and a career because of Passim,” she said. “… It’s a legendary room. It is literally my favorite place in the world to play.”
Matt Smith, the managing director of Passim for 21 years, said it’s McKenna’s ability to phrase and get to the core of a story that makes her one of the club’s stand-out artists.
“She’s always had these songs that are staggering with honesty and passion,” he said. “… I’ve done sound for almost every show she’s ever played at Passim, and there’s not a single time I haven’t ended up with tears running down my face in the sound booth.”
Fairchild said it’s that honesty and ability to “dig deep” that makes every song she works on special, whether she’s writing for a Little Big Town album or her own.
“She may be the most prolific lyricist I’ve ever written with,” Fairchild said. “She is just that in tune or, I don’t know, awake and aware? Whatever it is, it’s a special gift.”
McKenna’s upcoming album, produced by Dave Cobb, is already getting positive buzz in Nashville, and from critics at Rolling Stone and NPR. After the album’s official release, she said she’s scheduled to do a cross-country club tour that includes shows in Plymouth, Gloucester, and Boston.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” she said. “I’m not a great traveler. I like to stay home so the Boston show is always my favorite show because it’s the one here that my family will all go to. … There is no way I could ever release anything without playing in Boston. It really is hard to leave this area because it’s been so good to me musically.”
“Wreck You” is the album’s first single. The Bird & The Rifle will also feature McKenna’s own recording of “Humble & Kind,” which Tim McGraw recorded and took to country radio this past January. The song is Billboard’s first No. 1 written by just one person since Taylor Swift’s “Ours” four years ago.
For McKenna, the song is important to her not only for it’s popularity on country radio, but also because it brings her back to her Boston roots and her children.
“‘Humble & Kind’ is definitely the first song that was certainly written for all of them and that has been a great experience because Tim does a such great job with the song, and it has been such a big part of the last few months with the kids,” she said. “But they’re funny because my kids can’t be impressed, I’ll tell you … I don’t think I could get too full of myself with my job because my kids are always like, ‘What’s for dinner?'”
McKenna is playing at The Sinclair in Cambridge on Saturday, August 13, at 8 p.m.
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