Lori McKenna

On her latest release, The Balladeer, Lori McKenna offers her most uplifting and uptempo album in a catalog that spans more than 20 years. Her previous album, The Tree, was nominated for “Album of the Year” at the 2019 Americana Music Awards and received widespread critical acclaim, including landing on several “Best of 2018” lists by Entertainment Weekly, Paste, Slate, The A.V. Club, the Washington Post and Rolling Stone. In 2016, McKenna’s album The Bird & The Rifle was nominated for three Grammy awards as well as three Americana Awards. 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. In 2017, she became the first woman ever to win the Country Music Association’s Song of the Year award two years in a row. She also won back-to-back Grammys for Best Country Song for “Girl Crush,” performed by Little Big Town, and “Humble and Kind,” performed by Tim McGraw. This year, she won her third Best Country Song Grammy for co-writing “Crowded Table” with Brandi Carlile and Natalie Hemby, performed by the Highwomen. Moreover, she became the first female to ever win Songwriter of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards in 2017. In addition to writing songs for a multitude of award-winning artists including Hunter Hayes, Faith Hill, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Reba McEntire, Tim McGraw and Carrie Underwood, McKenna also co-wrote “Always Remember Us This Way,” which was featured in the Academy Award-winning 2018 film “A Star Is Born.” She was nominated for a Grammy earlier this year for Best Country Song for co-writing “I Bet You Think About Me (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)," performed by Taylor Swift.