Lori McKenna Prepares New Album “The Balladeer”

Lori McKenna is a hit country songwriter and a heralded Americana performer, and whenever a new song emerges with her name on it, you’re smart to take a pause from whatever trifle you’re busy with, and listen.

Her new album called The Balladeer will arrive on on July 24th via CN Records and Thirty Tigers, and will include 10 news songs, most of which were written solely by McKenna herself, and three with her well-known troika that also includes Hillary Lindsey and Liz Rose, known affectionately by many as the Love Junkies. Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman also appear on the opening track. The album was recorded with Dave Cobb at Nashville’s RCA Studio ‘A’.

This will be music for adults, by adults, just like most of Lori McKenna’s recent offerings. Putting her life experiences as a mother of five in Massachusetts into the verses of her songs is what has results in some of her biggest accolades, including her award-winning composition “Humble & Kind.” The Balladeer leans especially into this theme.

“I’m at the age now where you can see really well where you’re going, because you’re helping your parents and you’ve lived through what your kids are doing,” McKenna says about her aging offspring. “It’s this weird emotional time where you’re like a bookkeeper, writing it all down, trying to make sense of it and add it all up somehow.”

This is embodied in the first song released from the new album called “When You’re My Age,” which finds Hillary Lindsey and Liz Rose singing along with their regular writing partner. “Life will line your face / Time will turn the page,” McKenna sings on the piano ballad. “But they’re still gonna be your babies / Just like you’re still gonna be my baby.”

The Balladeer is now available for pre-order.

TRACK LISTING:

1. This Town Is A Woman (ft. Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman)
2. The Balladeer
3. Marie
4. The Dream
5. Uphill
6. Good Fight
7. Stuck In High School
8. When You’re My Age (ft. Hillary Lindsey and Liz Rose)
9. Two Birds
10. ‘Till You’re Grown

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