Search - Lori Mckenna :: Massachusetts

Lori McKenna's "Massachusetts" is an ostensibly real place, populated with natives who cannot pronounce the letter "r" and a Dunkin' Donuts on every corner. But Massachusetts is also just symbolic name for the emotional geography of Lori McKenna's songs. With the rare exception of a song where the protagonist is leaving (Salt), most of the songs deal less in confrontation than resignation. McKenna's characters live in relationships they are not leaving--they are honoring commitments and lying in the beds they made. The way that McKenna regularly breaks the listener's heart is by allowing her tragic characters such dignity, endowing them with the emotional intelligence to acknowledge the cost of the sacrifices they make for love (Shake, Shouting). They are fully aware of the toll that love takes on their hopes and dreams, and yet they strive to do the right thing, like their mamas raised them up to do. They are willing to follow their love into the darkness and through hard times (My Love Follows You, Take Me With You When You Go), only to be left behind to reckon with its loss (Susanna). They are stoic survivors who might occasionally think they deserve to feel the pain, like they knew the risks before choosing a love and they still did it anyway (Make Every Word Hurt). There are also moments, as in many long term relationships, between storms, when they see this crazy life for what it is, grateful to have a partner with which to ride out the tempest (How Romantic Is That). There are strong resemblances between Lori McKenna's Massachusetts and the real thing. Both are infused with history, where every turn takes you down some road with a tale to tell, maybe a story of your own or of the ones who came before, with hopes and dreams and loves and losses just like yours. They are places of extremes, where love can be a perfect summer day or a bleak November sky, and life can be as wistful as the dead of winter reminiscing of a greener spring. Like anyplace with history, Massachusetts has endured long enough to be able to look back with hard-won wisdom on its own journey, as many of these songs do. It's got heart and spirit and it knows that if you can just weather the hard times and stay committed to the genuine ideal of the way you dream life should be, that sooner or later love really is bound to put it all back together.