A Conversation with Lori McKenna (continued)

LM: I was actually just looking at your webzine, and I see that you did an interview with Beth Nielsen Chapman. And last time I was there I was with her.

PM: Yeah, it's such a drag, because I was playing that same night at a different joint, and I couldn't go see you.

LM: Oh! Well, that was like a big week, right, around town?

PM: Yeah, it was Tin Pan South. You were at the Bluebird, I was across town with some friends at The Basement. But that's Nashville for you. Happens a lot.

LM: Yeah, I bet it does. I had played at the Bluebird one other time, but for some reason or another, they put us on a stage--they didn't have us in the round like in the middle of the place.

PM: It's much better when they put you on stage, I think, because when you're in the middle of the room--I'm always sitting behind the person I most want to see. It never fails. It's like the only seat left.

[laughter]

LM: That's funny. Well, I think I was sort of up against the pole, to tell you the truth. But Hal David was there the night that we played.

PM: Oh wow...

LM: And I got to tell you, I love songs, right? I love music, I appreciate a songwriter as much as the next person, because I am a songwriter. And Boston is a great environment for songwriters, I think. It's very nurturing here. Well, Hal David gets up and sings "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head."

PM: Yikes.

LM: Right? And people, like twenty-five-year-old blonde, beautiful girls, women--that you think, well, I'm surprised they even know who he is--were crying, were sobbing. I couldn't even look at the audience because I was afraid I was going to start crying.

PM: [laughs]

LM: And I had to sing a song. You know what I mean? And the room was obviously silent, which it is anyway, but then that guy gets up and sings his song, and people were sobbing. And I said to somebody afterwards, I said, "Wow, I've never seen anything like that before." And they said, "That's Nashville for you, because we appreciate the songwriters here."

PM: Yeah.

LM: Maybe he wasn't the guy singing that on the radio, but he's the guy who wrote that song. And to hear the songwriter sing that song is this thing that you just can't get anywhere else.

PM: And you hear a song like that, and it hits you--"Now that is a frickin' song!" "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head," thank you.

LM: I know. I know. And they did this whole medley of 15 of his songs. [laughs] It was brilliant. But then to have him come up and sing, it was really an honor. And I was sitting there right beside him. He was standing there singing, and I thought, "Wow, this is something. I don't know how I ended up here."

[laughter]

PM: So you've written with Mark D. Sanders and Darrell Scott. Who else are you writing with down here?

LM: Well, I got to write with Beth. And let's see, God, I've been down there a few times now. I've written with Liz Rose.

PM: Oh, I've heard she's fun to write with.

LM: She's great.

PM: She writes for the company right next door to our studio.

LM: Oh, really?

PM: Did you go to Jody Williams' office to write with her?

LM: Yes, that's where I went.

PM: Yeah. Well, next time you're there, come to the building before that, we're at the studio on the bottom. Come knock on my door.

LM: Oh, that's so funny.

PM: That's Nashville.

LM: Yeah, I got to say, Nashville is crazy. For someone like me--I live in this town called Stoughton, Massachusetts. Nashville is crazy. I'm sitting in her office, and a tour bus drives by. Then another tour bus drives by.

[laughter]

LM: The windows were open because it was really nice out. And then another tour bus. I'm like, "What's with all the tour buses?" She's like, "Dude, it's Nashville." Like, "What do you mean?"

[laughter]

LM: But yeah, I've really loved every experience I've had so far. It's been incredible. And you know who I got to write with who was a blast was Harley Allen.

PM: Oh, what a character.

LM: [laughs] It was great.

PM: You mean Melanie set you up with Harley Allen. That's fantastic.

LM: Well, and then she said, "Well, I got this co-write with this guy that doesn't really do co-writes." And I thought, oh, boy.

[laughter]

PM: Right. "Which hillbilly are you pairing me with?"

LM: I mean, he doesn't need me. He doesn't need to do co-writes because the guy is so--he's brilliant. And I basically just sat in his office and watched him write a song.

PM: [laughs]

LM: But I was happy to have--

PM: "I was in the room," as they say in Nashville.

LM: Yeah. He wouldn't even let me make coffee.

[laughter]

LM: But I got to meet his wife.

PM: He was probably drinking beer, anyway.

LM: Not really, he was smoking a lot of cigarettes. But I thought, well, at least I can light a cigarette for him, or something, while he writes this song. But I got to meet his wife and his kids, and his wife was great. I liked his wife the second I met her. But yeah, Melanie takes good care of me. She really does. And like I said, it's just a blast for me.  
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