Two-time Grammy and CMA award-winning singer-songwriter Lori McKenna is a star in the country music world, but the part of the country she's from tends to surprise fans.
Born and raised in Stoughton, Mass., McKenna said she's used to the shock she gets when people discover she's from the northeast. "I love Stoughton. I love it here," she told Jim Braude during a Monday interview on Greater Boston.
So where does she get the accent?
“I do fake a southern accent when I travel and when I sing,” she admitted.
“When I started recording my songs, somebody told me I didn’t pronounce any of my r’s, and I didn’t know that before. So, in order to find them, I developed a slight southern accent. I just tell people I’m [from] south of Boston and that’s where I get my southern twang.”
McKenna has released ten albums since 2000 and is getting ready to release another, titled “The Tree.”
Asked about the meaning behind the title, she said the album focuses on the family. It features a single dedicated to her 83-year-old father called “People Get Old” — a song she says she was nervous about performing for him.
"My father is very practical and honest and supportive and a man of few words sometimes. So, sometimes you just want to hope for the right words.”
“The Tree” is due out July 20.
Click here to see Lori McKenna perform the song "A Mother Never Rests," also from “The Tree.”
