Audioplayer Updated

I came across Lori McKenna rather randomly, through work. I was working on a microsite for one of our country stations at work… and she was slated to be one of the performers, for one of their upcoming concerts.

For some reason or another, the station had no audio clips of her work. And so they were going to just leave her audio segment off the site (while every other artist got a small audio hook, when you viewed their page). I glanced around on iTunes to see if I could find something by her, and lo and behold… after listening to a few tracks, I found myself interested in her voice and her songs.

A few days later, I ended up buying a copy of “The Kitchen Tapes,” the album she made pretty much while she was in her kitchen. There’s a lot of background noise (her settling down, coffee cups on the table, etc.) and the songs aren’t all that polished – but I’m really liking the album a lot.

Listening to her, all the ambient stuff (the phone ringing, kids in the background) fades away and I find her voice pretty stunning. The fact that these songs sort of bear their flaws and mistakes is what makes it seemingly more intimate. I’m liking it.

The first track, How to be Righteous, is the one I’ve been looping constantly. About a minute thirty into the song, when she sings “It’s not easy, no” and hits the word “easy” with that high D… man, that shit makes my toes curl. She does this a few more times later in the song, hitting that high note and just totally hitting and landing on it. I’m not sure if it’s the song I love, or the way she hits that note.

Her cover of Radiohead’s Fake Plastic Trees is also pretty great. For this one, I find myself focusing more on the sound of her voice than anything else. And for Falter, it’s more folksy out of the bunch.

Randomly new stuff. I rarely stumble across new music, so this felt like a good time to share. Hope you like.