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Passim presents Lori McKenna with special guest Liz Longley aboard the Rock and Blues Cruise
About Lori McKenna:
Lori’s unusual combination of professional and personal life, at least in the context of the modern music industry, is well-documented. She grew up in Massachusetts in a musical household. She began performing her songs in public at age 27, after she and her husband Gene already had three children. She and Gene continue to maintain a happy home in Stoughton, Massachusetts, adding two more children to their full lives. The love of home and community is not some abstraction for Lori. It’s central to who she is.
She eventually became a staple of the Boston folk music scene, where she became friendly with Mary Gauthier. “We were the two old ladies in a sea of young faces,” she jokes. When Gauthier picked up and left for Nashville, she brought Lori’s music to the attention of her publisher. They got her music into the hands of Faith Hill, who fell hard for Lori’s songs. Hill recorded three of them for her album Fireflies. Lori’s way of articulating the love, pain and pathos of domestic life had a huge impact on Hill, and Hill’s very public championing of Lori’s music led other artists to Lori’s songs. Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood, Alison Krauss, Keith Urban and LeAnn Rimes are among the many that have recorded her songs in recent years.
The increased acclaim for her song craft led to a record deal with Warner Brothers, who released her 2007 album Unglamorous. Working with Tim McGraw (who co-produced the album), an appearance on Oprah and an opening slot on McGraw and Faith Hill’s Soul2Soul tour were heady experiences, and Lori is grateful for them. Sales levels that would seem astronomical by the standards of the folk community that nurtured her were not enough for a subsequent regime at Warner Brothers, and they parted amicably. “One thing that did come out of that experience was a much deeper confidence in myself as an artist,” says Lori, which was one reason she decided to take the reins back in her professional life. By choice, she has no label and no manager for the first time in her career.
About Liz Longley:
In the short time since her graduation from Boston’s renowned Berklee College of Music, singer-songwriter Liz Longley has assembled quite an impressive resume. While best known for her stop-you-in-your-tracks voice, Liz has quickly built a reputation as an accomplished songwriter, crafting intimately personal portraits through her music.
In 2010 alone, Liz took home top prizes at some of the most prestigious songwriting competitions in the country; the BMI John Lennon Songwriting Scholarship Competition, the International Acoustic Music Awards and the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest. In 2011, Liz was named New England's Performer of the Year and was nominated as Sirius XM Radio's Singer/Songwriter Discovery of the Year. The Washington Post declared that she is “destined for a bigger audience,” Dig Boston called her “a rising acoustic sensation” and even John Mayer is a fan, calling her music “gorgeous, just gorgeous.” Liz recently moved to music city, Nashville, TN, where she hopes to record her next album with the best in the industry this September.
Tickets are $27.50 in advance, $33 day of show.
