Lori McKenna looked deceptively understated when she walked on stage, looking like many small-town women with one husband and five children. Through her 75-minute show at the American Songbook series in Lincoln Center, she told engaging stories about her kids and said she does her songwriting at the kitchen table back home in Massachusetts. She paused several times to glance around and admire the drop-dead view through the floor-to-ceiling span of windows in the Allen Room. She commented about holding up her computer that afternoon so she could show her kids what the New York skyline looks like. She mentioned she was wearing the same dress that she wore at The Grand Ole Opry.

Folksiness aside, however, while McKenna really is a down-to-earth, New England housewife, she also happens to have a knack for writing intense narratives of ordinary working folks and putting these tales to commendable tunes that combine the sounds of folk, rock and country. There are varying facets to this songwriter/singer. While she leads a satisfying life in the same town where she was born, she uses her experiences and observations to write straightforward Everyman poetry that neatly slices into the complications and roadblocks of life. Along with booze, frustrations, and death, she harks back to high school days with more than a little regret in "Stealing Kisses." Yet she also celebrates the simple things with appreciation for the "Unglamorous" life of "no frills, no fuss."

McKenna delivers her messages with everything she feels, her voice brightly metallic, often edging toward sarcasm. She has a vibrant Nashville belt for tunes like, "I Know You" and "Drinkin' Problem," country songs of strong passions and heavy beats. She brings down the volume and tempo for heartbreakers like, "Leaving This Life," about her mother who died when she was six.

The lineup of songs for Lincoln Center seemed to be a sampler of the Lori McKenna songbook. For some reason, she put down the guitar and delivered one for the cabaret, "Dream A Little Dream."

If she is one of the lesser-known names in the 2008 American Songbook season, Lori McKenna fits snugly within the criterion of eclectic, with a tribute to blue-collar America against a backdrop of Central Park South.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
January 24, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org