(Boston, MA October 19, 2020) The Boch Center’s new television music series, The Ghost Light Series, continues Friday, October 23rd at 7:30 PM on NECN with acclaimed singer songwriter and Stoughton, MA native Lori McKenna filmed live on-stage at the Wang Theatre.
This past summer, McKenna released The Balladeer, her most personal album to date featuring songs that reflect firsthand on her relationships with her children, husband and family. Following this theme, McKenna wrote the majority of the album alone except for three tracks written with Hillary Lindsey and Liz Rose—a group collectively known as the Love Junkies. The first single off the album, “When You’re My Age,” debuted to critical acclaim. Entertainment Weekly declared, “another in her growing repertoire of tear-jerking life advice ballads,” while Rolling Stone praised it as, “intensely moving.”
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.
For centuries, theatres around the world have had what is known as a Ghost Light, a single lamp left shining when everyone has left. The legend is that this light protects actors, patrons and theatres from bad luck and ghosts. Each half-hour show in the Ghost Light Series features artists performing to an empty audience on the Boch Center’s Wang Theatre stage illuminated only by the Ghost Light. There are no amps and no spotlights, just the artists and their instruments, playing and sharing stories, and revealing what it is like to be a musician at a time when you are cut off from your audience.
Joined on stage by guitarist Mark Erelli, McKenna performs ” “Humble and Kind,” “The Balladeer,” and “Girl Crush” as well as “People Get Old, and “Marie.”
Future episodes of the Ghost Light Series will include Noel Paul Stookey, Tom Rush, and Jonathan Edwards all performing together, Will Dailey, Chris Smither, The Restless Age, Jay Psaros, Livingston Taylor, and more.
Guests watching at home or online are asked to support the Boch Center and the Folk American Roots Hall of Fame by making a donation or naming a seat atbochcenter.org/donate.
What: The Ghost Light Series featuring Lori McKenna
When: Friday, October 23rd, 7:30 PM
Where: NECN
For more information on the Ghost Light Series, head to bochcenter.org/discover/ghost-light-series.
