Lori McKenna's '1988' celebrates 'rose-colored' rock and reflection

The twin gifts of age are timelessness and wisdom. These notions guide and elevate the art that singer-songwriter Lori McKenna presents on "1988," her latest album.

The Grammy-winning songwriter behind anthemic hits like Little Big Town's "Girl Crush," Tim McGraw's "Humble and Kind," and The Highwomen's "Crowded Table" tells The Tennessean that her latest is a "dream" project that allows her to reflect on the experiences, lessons earned and learned during her 35 years of marriage to her husband, Gene.

More than anything, the album's most significant value for McKenna is in how it juxtaposes her life at 19 versus life at 54 as a journey into self-comparative introspection.

Twenty-something 90s rock fanatic McKenna (she favored pop-aimed bands like "Hey Jealousy" performers the Gin Blossoms) was not the acoustic guitar-favoring singer-songwriter she would become. Thus, while recording "1988" in Savannah, Georgia, she asked album producer Dave Cobb if he'd be willing to plug in an electric guitar.

He agreed.

The choice benefits the scope of the album. 1988 celebrates McKenna arriving at a place where she still remembers exactly what inspired her desire to work as a creative artist. And though her path diverged, she remains in touch with her deepest passions.

"This album is me finally realizing that I'm confident enough to be myself amongst the music and musicians that inspired me most," she says, referencing Sheryl Crow and Alanis Morrissette as key to her musical development.

Songs like "Killing Me," "The Old Woman In Me," "Letting People Down" and "The Tunnel" (among many others) reflect that passion. Thus, the album, in total, represents McKenna's most unfettered art ever.

"I'm old and experienced enough now to do what my sister calls 'standing in the light,'" says the three-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter.

"Songs grow in and with us," offers McKenna.

"For years, I've found the song that's in the room and written it." Regarding "The Tunnel," she offers that the song she wrote alongside Ben West and Stephen Wilson Jr. reflects "finding" a song for herself during the COVID-19 quarantine reflects celebrating a friend recalling bravery built from childlike naivete to survive life's shortcomings.

The album reflects on the various disagreements that color a life spent almost perpetually surrounded by some mix of husband, five children and collaborators. Ultimately, it paints McKenna's life in what she calls "rose-colored clarity."

The "numbness" to the self-doubt that cripples many aspiring Nashville artists developed like a callus over McKenna's life.

The repetitive nature of waking up next to the same person and surviving the throes of elementary-to-teenage development on five separate occasions – while also being a 30-year songwriter in a ten-year town – builds a foundation that is solidified by personal fulfillment.

"1988" finally cracks and peels that callus.

"["1988"] reflects me being at a place where I'm finally in balance with my life," she says. "I'm no longer the mother driving home on the Massachusetts Turnpike in a minivan at one in the morning with five inches of snow on the ground after a flight from Nashville."

"I'm not as concerned anymore about balancing this dumb idea I had about being a songwriter alongside making sure I can pack my kid a juice box in their lunch in the morning."

Both in reflection and glee, McKenna makes her following statement with a rare frankness.

"I've achieved this unbelievable dream of being a professional songwriter while not making my family suffer for my art. Everyone – parents, women, wives every single person – deserves to live a life where they retain their sense of self while still wearing so many other hats," she says. "I guess this album is me resting in that success."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Lori McKenna's '1988' celebrates 'rose-colored' rock and reflection