lori mckenna's kitchen tapes

lori mckenna is from and still lives in stoughton, ma, mere minutes down old rte 138 from the hometown of anyone's guess.

her 2003 acoustic lo-fi album the kitchen tapes, recorded in her own kitchen right there in stoughton, has the charming, intimate & vulnerable feeling of a live performance - most especially in those interstitial spaces between songs when the tape's still running but the expected, the deserved applause never arrives. in its places there's nothing but the shy reshuffling of fingers along the strings or of chairs or a glass of water. this album, which mckenna has referred to as accidental, distills the idea of performer & instrument; and lucky us, we get to listen in.

lori mckenna - falter
lori mckenna - you better

radiohead may well be the most frequently covered band around (see here for brandi carlile's appropriation of thom yorke's neuroses). much like carlile, mckenna too has the kind of robust voice able to deliver on the lyrical intent of radiohead's emotionally wrought songs. here's her version of "fake plastic trees", also off of the kitchen tapes:

lori mckenna - fake plastic trees

mckenna's new album, unglamorous, comes out in august but the first single is already available through itunes. or you can buy the kitchen tapes here. and if you ever have the chance to see her live do anyone's guess a favor: take it, and applaud like hell.

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on a sad note, anyone's guess has recently learned that the excellent folkweb has shuttered its doors. the site used to be a fantastic (and independent) resource and marketplace for lovers and practitioners of folk music. it's true there are far more options available now for finding and procuring music from most artists but you can count me as one who'll miss robert, karen & hannah.