NEW ALBUM 1988 RELEASED TO CRITICAL ACCLAIM
CO-HEADLINE TOUR WITH BRANDY CLARK BEGINS THIS MONTH
September 13, 2023—A new acoustic performance video for GRAMMY Award-winning singer, songwriter and musician Lori McKenna’s song, “Wonder Drug,” is debuting today. Filmed at Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A, the video features McKenna alongside GRAMMY Award-winning producer Dave Cobb. Watch/share HERE.
Reflecting on the song, McKenna shares, “I can’t explain how much I wish I wasn’t telling anyone’s story. But we all know it is. ‘Wonder Drug’ is one of those songs that chased me around the house for a month before I finally wrote it down. The songs that chase me are few and far between and I consider them blessings even when they are this sad. I hope the takeaway is ‘run to love.’”
“Wonder Drug” is from McKenna’s acclaimed new album, 1988, which was released earlier this summer via CN Records/Thirty Tigers (stream/purchase here). Produced by Cobb (Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell) and recorded at his studio in Savannah, GA, 1988 is named for the year McKenna married her husband, Gene, and serves as a love letter to her family and lifelong friendships.
Of the album, McKenna shares, “I was trying to let my age and experience guide me through making a record I wished I’d made when I was younger. I really wanted it to sound like if I made a rock record in the ‘90s, and then I remembered that I made my first album in 1998. There’s something so 30 years ago in my head about this record. In a way I wish I could start again and know what I know now.”
In celebration of the new music, McKenna will join forces with Brandy Clark for a special co-headline tour starting later this month. “An Evening with Brandy Clark & Lori McKenna” will feature the pair together on stage, telling stories and performing songs from their own acclaimed catalogues as well as material they’ve written for others. See below for complete tour itinerary. Ticket details can be found at www.lorimckenna.com/tour.
The release of 1988 adds to a series of landmark years for McKenna and follows three widely acclaimed albums: 2016’s The Bird & The Rifle, 2018’s The Tree and 2020’s The Balladeer, of which the Associated Press praised, “McKenna has by now long established herself as one of the best songwriters working in any genre. And she does it again and again,” while The Tennessean asserted, “one of the sharpest pens in modern country and folk songwriting.”
In addition to her career as a solo artist, McKenna continues to enjoy tremendous success as one of the music industry’s most in-demand songwriters, having written songs for artist such as Taylor Swift and Chris Stapleton, Miranda Lambert, Maren Morris, George Strait, Sheryl Crow, Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill and Reba McEntire. McKenna also co-wrote “Always Remember Us This Way,” which was featured in the Academy Award-winning 2018 film, A Star Is Born. In the past few years, McKenna has also won Best Country Song at GRAMMY Awards three times (The Highwomen’s “Crowded Table,” Tim McGraw’s “Humble and Kind” and Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush”), Song of the Year at the CMA Awards twice (“Girl Crush” and “Humble and Kind”) and was the first female to ever win the ACM Awards’ Songwriter of the Year award.
