April 08, 2022

Lori McKenna: Grammy winning songwriter and Americana folk artist on the power of mumbling as lyric process and making your last chorus the firework finale of your song!

1 hour 11 minutes

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Multi grammy award winning songwriter Lori McKenna.

Lori is an American folk, Americana, and country music singer-songwriter. In 2016, she won a grammy for Best Country Song "Girl Crush" performed by Little Big Town. In 2017, she won a grammy for her song “Humble and Kind” recorded by Tim McGraw and most recently was nominated for a grammy for best song “Beautiful Noise” co written with Brandi Carlilie, Alicia keys, Brandy Clark, Linda Perry, Ruby Amanfu, Hailey Whitters, and Hillary Lindsey.

Lori She has 11 solo albums as an artist, and cowritten with other artists such as Tylor Swift, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Sarah Barielles, Lady Gaga and many many more.

Lori is one of the nicest and most talented people you could want to meet and is a songwriter that other songwriters study to write better songs. This conversation inspired me and I can’t wait to share it with you.

Some show highlights:

The power of mumbling to find a lyric
Letting the song be a cowriter
How some times a chord will tell you what to say
When you start overthinking-take a walk
Using imagery in your song to tell people what the room looks like so they can put themselves in there
Anaphora as a lyric writing device
First part of the song is the most important
Writing on paper and the computer
Keeping notes
Changing the last chorus even a little bit, so the last chorus doesn’t just pass you by
The grand finale of the last chorus, all the fireworks
Sing the first verse and chorus to your best friend and sing the second verse and chorus to yourself
Last verse and chorus to your someone else
A song is a conversation and you don’t have to express it all to just one person, think of it as three different conversations “how to kiss a boy”

http://www.lorimckenna.com

https://www.scarletkeys.com

Engineer: Peter Sykes https://www.petersykesmusic.com

The show's theme song "What's in a Song" was co-written with Otto Gross
Recorded and performed by Otto Gross:
@OttoGrossProduction (instagram)
@OttoGrossMusic (Youtube, facebook, TikTok)
https://biglink.to/ottogrossmusic

Scarlet's website:

https://www.scarletkeys.com

Scarlet's instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scarletkeysofficial/

To purchase Scarlet Keys' book "The Craft of Songwriting:

https://www.amazon.com/Craft-Songwriting-Music-Meaning-Emotion/dp/0876391927/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2PP55NU6E9ST6&keywords=the+craft+of+songwriting&qid=1659573139&sprefix=the+craft+of+songwritin%2Caps%2C153&sr=8-1

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By Scarlet Keys