Lori McKenna to Release New Album “The Tree”
If there’s any hope for the future of mainstream country music, it lies in songwriters like Lori McKenna. Whenever you see a quality song from a major label country artist, it’s uncanny how often Lori McKenna’s name comes up in the songwriting credits. That was the case for Tim McGraw’s award-winning version of “Humble and Kind,” and dozens of other McKenna-penned tracks, including tracks she’s written with her cadre of fellow composers Hillary Lindsey and Liz Rose, also known as The Love Junkies.
True country fans know that if you want to find the best music, you have to go straight to the source. Lori McKenna’s 2016 album The Bird and the Rifle produced by Dave Cobb was one of the best that year. McKenna offered her own version of “Humble and Kind” right beside other top selections from her catalog. Now she is preparing another solo release with Dave Cobb at the helm once again. Called The Tree, it will be released on July 20th via Thirty Tigers.
Married with five children, don’t expect McKenna to delve into the current country trend of obsessing over the young club life. That’s the distinct difference in a Lori McKenna song. “I love people’s stories about their families—the way they tic and the ways we’re all crazy and love each other,” she says. “I hope my songs shine a little light on that for a second. Maybe our stories remind us of our families and what they give us. It’s beautiful, and sometimes we take it for granted.”
The Tree will feature 11 songs, and include appearances by Anderson East on guitar, and background vocals from Kristen Rogers, Natalie Hemby and Hillary Lindsey. Lori will also embark on “The Way Back Home Tour” this summer. Hear one of the tracks from the album “People Get Old” below. The Tree is now available for pre-order.
Track List:
1. “A Mother Never Rests” (Lori McKenna, Barry Dean)
2. “The Fixer” (Lori McKenna)
3. “People Get Old” (Lori McKenna)
4. “Young and Angry Again” (Lori McKenna, Barry Dean, Luke Laird)
5. “The Tree” (Lori McKenna, Natalie Hemby, Aaron Raitiere)
6. “You Won’t Even Know I’m Gone” (Lori McKenna)
7. “Happy People” (Lori McKenna, Hailey Whitters)
8. “You Can’t Break a Woman” (Lori McKenna, Hillary Lindsey, Liz Rose)
9. “The Lot Behind St. Mary’s” (Lori McKenna)
10. The Way Back Home” (Lori McKenna, Luke Laird)
11. “Like Patsy Would” (Lori McKenna, Hillary Lindsey, Liz Rose)
May 9, 2018 @ 9:16 pm
Extremely excited about this. The Bird & the Rifle was fucking awesome.
May 10, 2018 @ 5:14 am
Good!
But why don’t you review Ashley Monroe’s Sparrow? It was one of the most anticipated releases in the country/Americana realm. I personally don’t know how to feel about it yet, so I am very eager to read your take on it
May 10, 2018 @ 8:31 am
A couple of things on that front:
1. Just as you may not know what to feel about an album, I may not know what to feel about an album. That’s one of the reasons an album may not get reviewed, NOT because I hate the artist or album, not because I’m showing favoritism to other artists, or any other reasons. Ultimately reviews are made up of words, and if you can’t find them, you end up staring hours at a blank page. It’s better to move on to the next album you do have words for and get the review written as opposed to wasting time, and wait for when the words do come you you.
2. It has been an extremely, extremely busy season for releases. “Sparrow” was released on April 20th. Also on that day, new albums from Old Crow Medicine Show, Darci Carlson, Charley Crockett, Brothers Osborne, and Joshua Hedley were released, all of which have been reviewed. Even more albums were released on that day at I consider essential to review and I still have not gotten to, like Pat Reedy and Ashley Monroe. Then new albums come out the next week which also are essential to review. I’ve been reviewing albums at a frequency of one every other day for weeks trying to stay ahead, and am still falling behind. But I refuse to put up bad, or hastily-written reviews just to stay on time. At some point, the releases will slow down and there will be a dearth of things to review. That’s just how these things go.
3. Ashley Monroe is still a priority to review.
May 15, 2018 @ 1:53 am
Agreed, patiently waiting on Trigger’s review of Sparrow as well. I like it as much or more than The Blade, which still remains one of my favorite albums of the past five years… Monroe’s voice is impeccable, but in my opinion it’s her songwriting that singles her out as one of the best to come along in decades.
May 10, 2018 @ 5:36 am
Nice song I hope there will be an preview of the album.
May 10, 2018 @ 6:11 am
Nice.
NICE.
Always a fan of good writing.
May 10, 2018 @ 7:13 am
Really looking forward to this. Barry Dean is from my hometown and he brought Lori (and Luke Laird) back with him to do a charity songwriters show in November. I made the drive back home to support the charity and try to sneak in a quick hello to Barry.
I knew of Lori and knew some of her work, but was blown away by her songs in that setting and became a big fan. Such a great writer.
May 10, 2018 @ 7:34 am
hopefully this is as good as her last release, which was fantastic, looking forward!!
May 10, 2018 @ 7:39 am
Lori McKenna and Gretchen Peters.
If you have their catalogues you have the songwriting bibles .
May the forces be with you ………….
May 10, 2018 @ 8:01 am
I am looking forward to this one very much!
May 10, 2018 @ 8:27 am
In the meantime:
Gretchen Peters – Dancing With The Beast – Album – 05/18
Kelly Willis – Back Being Blue – Album – 05/18
Bri Murphy – Things We’d Rather Not Say – Album – 05/18
Karen Nash – Love & Justice – Album – 05/19
Tori Forsyth – Dawn Of The Dark – Album – 05/25 (Aussie Alt-Country)
Sylvia – Second Bloom (The Hits Re-Imagined) – Album – 06/08
& tomorrow aussie pop-country singer Hayley Jensen with a new EP: Turning Up The Dial
Not enough?
Ryan Martin – Gimme Some Light – Album – 06/29
Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore – Album – Downey To Lubbock – 06/01
Andy Brown – Cedarmont – Album – 06/08 (Pop-Country)
Ed Wayne – Something Sweet – Album – 05/31
Will Thomas Reed – To Whom It May Concern… – EP – 06/01
Jess Dayton – The Outsider – Album – 06/08
Chip Perry Band – My Last Name – Album – 05/19
Dave Starr – South & West – Album – 06/08
& Adam Sanders – Adam Sanders – EP – 05/11 (Pop-Country)
+ Kris Kristofferson – Live From Austin, TX – Album – 05/11
+ Eddie Rabbitt – I Love A Rainy Night – Album – 05/12 (25 tracks)
+ George Canyon – Southside Of Heaven – Album – 05/25 (Canadian Country Star)
+ Scott Southworth – Hey Hillbilly Singer! – Album – 05/14
+ Tim Culpepper – DUI (Drinkin’ Under The Influence) – EP – 05/19 (Great Traditional country songs like Randall King)
The End
May 10, 2018 @ 12:23 pm
This line is left unexplored: “I’m older now than he was then.”
So?
May 15, 2018 @ 1:44 am
Where do you feel the lyric should have gone that wasn’t already inferred?
May 19, 2018 @ 6:14 pm
She discussed this song at “Poets and Prophets” and in some interviews surrounding the new album. I haven’t listened to the song since listening to the livestream, but imagine it as being older than her father was when her mother died.
But, really, it could be older than he was in any particular memory that comes to mind. I know I’ve paused looking at photos of my parents, the grown-ups of my childhood, and realized that I am older now than they were in their wedding photos (even the photos from their second marriages!)
She seems to be one of the songwriters from the school of thinking that what makes lyrics powerful is not just what the writer(s) had in mind, but where the lyrics take the listener.
Loudon Wainwright III has a song about being older than his “old man” (father) was when the father died. Jim Infantino (sp?) of Jim’s Big Ego experiences the same realization in “Love What’s Gone” when recalling a photo of his father pitching softball in a jersey that is grey in the photo but in color (which one I forget as I type this) in the closet. The singer notes that, in the photo, the father was older that the singer is now. It’s not a country song, but in a way is more country than country radio these days (as readers of this site might have noticed – ha ha ha)
https://www.viddler.com/embed/a349baf0?autoplay=1
May 19, 2018 @ 6:28 pm
Listening to it now, I am reminded of her saying that her Dad, who worked for the power company, would go around the house turning out unnecessarily left-on lights, saying, “I WORK for the power company; I don’t OWN it.” I laughed out loud when she relayed that one. I had to go to Nashville for work a day after that show. I really wished I could have moved my travel up a day. But instead I listened as I packed for my trip. It made me laugh a lot and tear up a little. If you love music and ever get a chance to see a singer you like in the CMHOF Ford Theatre, don’t miss it! Saw Dwight there and Margo Price there, both on the same day during AmericanaFest in 2016. Still get goosebumps thinking about those shows.
Maybe she was singing about a particular time riding with her Dad, talking about the fish they caught. Maybe she was singing about that specific summer. Maybe she was singing about all the times they rode down that road after fishing – and maybe she’s now older than he was on every single one of those rides. But, ‘she’s still a kid and he’s still 45.’
May 11, 2018 @ 8:27 am
I have 4 of Lori’s CDs and they are all of such high quality that it’s difficult to say which one is best. What is not usually mentioned is her voice, which is very “pure country” , but probably not as dynamic or sweet or dramatic as that many of the more popular female singers today. But that does not matter because she is the best interpreter of her own songs. And I agree with the previous comment about Gretchen Peters who does have a slightly “sweeter” voice than McKenna. She also has a new release due out May 18. Both of those women would be in any Top 5 current songwriter list you could make.
May 11, 2018 @ 10:44 am
Lori McKenna is one of the few singer \ songwriters today dealing with real adult issues in a mature way. She is easily one of my favorite artists of today. Life is a wonderful, painful, beautiful, ugly experience and we need more artists to showcase this like she does.
May 11, 2018 @ 11:13 pm
The Year of Women in Alt. Country.
I’m telling you.
May 15, 2018 @ 1:43 am
If anyone can save country music it’s Lori Frickin’ McKenna. She can literally do no wrong in my eyes. Excited to see that the song Hailey Whitters co-wrote made the album, too.
May 15, 2018 @ 9:03 am
Ahhh she is my favorite. Up here in New England I think we are so lucky because she plays small listening rooms fairly often. She’s been playing People Get Old at shows for a year or so now… I’m so glad it made the new album, it was one of my favorites.