On her latest release, The Balladeer, Lori McKenna herself is offering her most uplifting and uptempo album in a catalog that spans 20 years. Produced by GRAMMY award winning Dave Cobb and recorded in Nashville’s historic Studio A, The Balladeer follows an incredible stretch of career momentum, including two consecutive Grammy wins as a songwriter for Best Country Song: Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush” and Tim McGraw’s “Humble and Kind.”
For The Balladeer, McKenna composed three tracks with “Girl Crush” collaborators Hillary Lindsey and Liz Rose, collectively known as the Love Junkies. The remaining seven were written alone as she pulled moments from her life and turned them into songs.
“I’m at the age now where you can see really well where you’re going, because you’re helping your parents — and you’ve lived through what your kids are doing,” McKenna says. “It’s this weird emotional time where you’re like a bookkeeper, writing it all down, trying to make sense of it and add it all up somehow.
The release of The Balladeer continues a series of landmark years for McKenna following her 2018 album, The Tree. Nominated for “Album of the Year” at the 2019 Americana Music Awards, the album received widespread critical acclaim and landed on several “Best of 2018” lists including 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 and 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. Moreover, she became the first female to ever win Songwriter of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards that same year. In addition to writing songs for a multitude of award-winning artists including Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, Little Big Town, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Hunter Hayes 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.
#1 Songs:
“Humble and Kind” by Tim McGraw
“Girl Crush” by Little Big Town
Grammy Awards:
2016 – WON – “Girl Crush” by Little Big Town – Country Song of the Year
2016 – Nominated – “Girl Crush” by Little Big Town – Song of the Year
2017 – WON – “Humble and Kind” by Tim McGraw – Country Song of the Year
2017 – Nominated – “Wreck You” by Lori McKenna – Best American Roots Performance
2017 – Nominated – “Wreck You” by Lori McKenna – Best American Roots Song
2017 – Nominated – “The Bird & The Rifle” by Lori McKenna – Best Americana Album
2019 – Nominated – “When Someone Stops Loving You” by Little Big Town – Best Country Song
2020 – Nominated – “Always Remember Us This Way” by Lady Gaga – Song of the Year
2020 – Nominated – “It All Comes Out in the Wash” by Miranda Lambert – Best Country Song
2021 – WON – “Crowded Table” by The Highwomen – Best Country Song
CMA Awards:
2015 – WON – “Girl Crush” by Little Big Town – Song of the Year
2016 – WON – “Humble and Kind” by Tim McGraw – Song of the Year
ACM Awards:
2016 – Nominated – “Girl Crush” by Little Big Town – Song of the Year
2017 – WON – “Humble and Kind” by Tim McGraw – Song of the Year
2017 – WON – Songwriter of the Year
Americana Music Awards:
2017 – Nominated – “Wreck You” by Lori McKenna – Song of the Year
2017 – Nominated – Artist of the Year
2019 – Nominated – “The Tree” by Lori McKenna – Album of the Year
2019 – Nominated – “People Get Old” by Lori McKenna – Song of the Year
2019 – Nominated – “By Degrees by Lori McKenna – Song of the Year
NSAI Awards:
2015 – “Girl Crush” by Little Big Town – Song of the Year
2016 – “Humble and Kind” by Tim McGraw – Song of the Year
Other Hit Radio Singles:
“I Want Crazy” by Hunter Hayes – #2
“God Made Girls” by RaeLynn – #7
“Cry Pretty” by Carrie Underwood – #9
