Unglamorous marks a new stage in the career of
Lori McKenna, a gifted
contemporary singer/songwriter from Massachusetts who makes her major-label debut here. Her previous releases --
Paper Wings and Halo (2000),
Pieces of Me (2001),
The Kitchen Tapes (2003), and
Bittertown (2004) -- were spare, masterfully written, and sometimes painfully intimate. It was easy to envision
McKenna sitting at home alone -- her husband away at work and her kids safely at school -- writing songs at her kitchen table with her acoustic guitar in hand, recording her music onto blank cassettes as a ticking clock fills the quiet between songs.
The Kitchen Tapes romanticized this notion, its cover featuring a drawing of a kitchen table with a cassette lying upon it, a wooden chair pulled out from the spot at which
McKenna presumably had been sitting, unassuming tiles dotting the floor. "Recorded by
Lori McKenna," a back-cover credit reads, while a stark cover of
Radiohead's
"Fake Plastic Trees" signals her knowingness. Songs like
"Bible Song," "One Man," and
"Stealing Kisses," each from
Bittertown, wonderfully showcase her gift for turning domestic small-town quietude into a kind of poetry, one marked by serenity as well as melancholy. It's pretty powerful music, especially if you can relate to the characters in her songs, the faceless towns those characters embody, or perhaps even
McKenna herself. Evidently,
Tim McGraw and
Faith Hill were among those moved by her music, because they brought her into their fold.
Hill's
Fireflies (2005) included three of
McKenna's songs, one of them the title track. The superstar
country duo also took
McKenna on tour as their opening act, and
McGraw even went so far as to produce
Unglamorous with his longtime studio hand,
Byron Gallimore. Hence the major-label contract with
Warner Brothers.
McKenna embraces her shot at the big-time here, as
Unglamorous is a world apart from
The Kitchen Tapes. The production is full, bright, and punchy, with a full-band backing. A rocking wah-wah guitar solo even pops up on
"Witness to Your Life." This turn away from
lo-fi folk music and toward
contemporary country sheen isn't necessarily bad in and of itself; in fact, it's tastefully done here on
Unglamorous, to the credit of
McGraw and
Gallimore as well as
McKenna, who sounds comfortable. And while
Unglamorous is
McKenna's first album to feature co-writers, among them Nashville pro
Liz Rose, who contributed to the standout title track, the songs here are thankfully characteristic of the Massachusetts mom's past work. Still, as tastefully produced and characteristically well-written as
Unglamorous may be, fans of
McKenna's past albums are likely to be disappointed by the result. The soul-baring of
Bittertown, the nakedness of
The Kitchen Tapes, the intimacy of
Pieces of Me -- it's difficult to find those qualities in these dressed-up performances. On the other hand, fans of
McGraw and especially
Hill (who both show up here as harmony vocalists) will likely fall head over heals for
Unglamorous. Though it lacks their star power and radio-ready hooks, it offers instead songs that are written and sung with a heartfelt authenticity neither
McGraw nor
Hill can rival. [
Warner Bros released a bonus CD edition in 2007 as well.] ~ Jason Birchmeier
