Lori McKenna's The Bird and the Rifle: When the Songwriter Steps to the Front in 2016

Lori McKenna grew up in Stoughton, Massachusetts, far from Nashville's Music Row, and began writing songs as a young mother of five before anyone outside her immediate community had heard of her. The path from suburban Massachusetts kitchen table to Nashville hit-writing credential was not straightforward, but by 2016 McKenna had written "Girl Crush" (Little Big Town, 2014 Grammy winner for Best Country Song), "Humble and Kind" (Tim McGraw, 2016), and "The Girls" (Lauren Alaina), establishing herself as one of Nashville's most respected active songwriters.

The Bird and the Rifle, released on Pure Mercury Records in July 2016, was McKenna's eighth solo album and the one that most fully demonstrated her range and depth as both a songwriter and a recording artist. Produced by Dave Cobb in Nashville, the record had the live-tracking directness and emotional honesty that Cobb had brought to Chris Stapleton's work, applied to songs that were quieter, more domestic, and more observationally specific than the more anthemic material he had produced elsewhere.

Dave Cobb and the Production Match

The pairing of McKenna's confessional, domestic songwriting with Cobb's live-tracking production philosophy was well-considered. Cobb's approach of minimizing production gloss and trusting the performance created an intimate recording environment that served McKenna's kind of writing, which drew its power from specific observed detail rather than emotional grandeur.

For independent artists evaluating producer choices, the McKenna-Cobb collaboration offered a model of how to identify the production approach that served a specific artistic identity rather than simply hiring the most successful available producer. Cobb's method was not universally appropriate, but for McKenna's introspective, domestic folk-country, it was exactly right.

The Songwriter-as-Artist Tension

McKenna's career illustrated a tension familiar to Nashville's professional songwriting community: the professional songwriter who writes better material than most recording artists encounters a structural barrier in which the industry treats her primarily as a resource for other artists rather than as an artist in her own right.

Her solo records had always been critically praised but commercially modest, largely because the Nashville promotional infrastructure that served commercial country radio was not available to an artist on a small independent label making music that did not fit radio formatting. The Grammy and CMA recognitions for "Girl Crush" elevated her public profile significantly, providing a form of mainstream industry credibility that improved her solo career's visibility.

The New England Origin and Its Musical Implications

McKenna's Massachusetts origin and continued residence there gave her songwriting a perspective on country music and rural American life that was simultaneously sympathetic and slightly external, the perspective of someone who chose to love the tradition rather than inheriting it as default. Her writing about family, community, and the textures of working-class life was informed by actual working-class family experience in Stoughton rather than Nashville industry convention.

This biographical grounding gave her songs a specificity and authenticity that was audible regardless of genre categorization.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Lori McKenna? Lori McKenna is a Massachusetts-born singer-songwriter who has written hits for multiple country artists including Little Big Town ("Girl Crush"), Tim McGraw ("Humble and Kind"), and Lauren Alaina. She has also released multiple solo albums over a career spanning more than two decades.

**What makes The Bird and the Rifle significant in her career?** It is widely regarded as her most fully realized solo album, produced by Dave Cobb with a directness and intimacy that served her confessional, domestic songwriting. It demonstrated that her artistic voice as a recording artist was as distinctive as her craft as a commercial songwriter.

Who produced the album and what approach did they take? Dave Cobb produced the record with his characteristic live-tracking, minimal-gloss approach that prioritized performance authenticity over production polish. The method served McKenna's introspective songwriting well.

How did McKenna's professional songwriting success affect her solo career? The Grammy recognition for "Girl Crush" and CMA recognition for "Humble and Kind" elevated her public profile and industry credibility in ways that improved the visibility of her solo artist work within Nashville and beyond.

What does McKenna's origin outside Nashville suggest for songwriters with non-Nashville backgrounds? Her Massachusetts background produced a perspective on country music that was simultaneously sympathetic and slightly external, generating songwriting about working-class life and family that was grounded in actual experience rather than industry convention. This kind of outside-yet-informed perspective can produce distinctive artistic voices.