Erin McKeown
From elegant pop to balls-out rock,sweet electronics to witty swing, Erin McKeown has packed a ton of music into her young career. With 5 albums, 2 EPs, and numerous soundtracks and compilations to her credit, the 29-year-old songwriter and multi-instrumentalist hasn’t stopped for a breather in the last 10 years. Along the way she has averaged 200 shows a year and garnered the praise of fans and critics alike. McKeown’s newest release is Lafayette, a rollicking evening with her six-piece Little Big Band.
Airborne metaphors carry the songwriter Erin McKeown all the way through her fourth album, “We Will Become Like Birds” (Nettwerk). Her clear mezzo-soprano sounds perpetually optimistic, and so do the syncopated electric guitar parts she picks and plucks through the sparsely arranged but fully realized songs. A degree in ethnomusicology, and African undercurrents, separate her from more rhythmically earthbound folk-rockers. The ballast is lyrics about breakups and aftermaths; her first words on the album are “I’m in shambles, blown to bits by our troubles.” Those troubles give her something to rise above.—NY Times
