Erin McKeown
Encyclopedia
Erin McKeown (born October 15, 1977) is an American
multi-instrumentalist
and folk-rock singer/songwriter.
McKeown began her career in the folk
scene. She released her first album, Monday Morning Cold, on her own label (TVP Records), travelling throughout New England
while still a student at Brown University
in order to promote the record. Although she had begun studying ornithology
, she graduated from Brown with a degree in ethnomusicology
.
McKeown's music is difficult to categorize in terms of genre; it has touched upon pop
, swing, rock
, folk, and electronic music
, as well as many other genres. McKeown cites The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
as an influence on her music.
The Philadelphia Weekly recently described McKeown's music, saying:
McKeown continues to perform regularly, spending much of her time touring throughout the world with artists such as Ani DiFranco
, Josh Ritter
, the Indigo Girls
, Martin Sexton
, Andrew Bird
, Thea Gilmore
, Melissa Ferrick
, Allison Miller
, and others. McKeown also took part in Queerstock, a music festival dedicated to promoting LGBT
musicians.
Early in her career, she also collaborated with Beth Amsel
, Jess Klein
, and Rose Polenzani
; the four of them performed as Voices on the Verge
.
McKeown's 2005 album, We Will Become Like Birds
(produced by Tucker Martine
), served as a departure from her earlier work, with a more rock-oriented sound. At a September 1, 2008, concert at The Gravity Lounge in Charlottesville, Virginia
, McKeown told the audience that she wrote this album "in an attempt to write myself out of the worst heartache
I'd experienced up to that point."
Her next studio release, Sing You Sinners
, was released in Europe
on the 23 October 2006 and in the United States on January 9, 2007 by Nettwerk Records LLC
. It consists mostly of covers of jazz standards from the 1920s through 1950s.
McKeown's latest record, Hundreds of Lions, was released under Righteous Babe Records
on October 13, 2009. Additionally, a series of web concerts recorded in 2009 are available at McKeown's website. McKeown is also currently member of an unsigned band known as "emma", which she created with her friend Allison Miller
. McKeown has plans to write a book of poetry.
McKeown is noted for her energetic stage presence and her habit of wearing tailored suits, often with ties and Fluevog shoes, to performances.
She grew up in Fredericksburg, Virginia
, and now lives in Massachusetts
.
She occasionally performs big band
music with the Beantown Swing Orchestra
.
McKeown was selected to be a 2011-2012 fellow at Harvard University
's Berkman Center for Internet & Society
. There, she will "work to connect the worlds of policy, art, and technology while considering questions about how to make a creative life a viable vocation."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
multi-instrumentalist
Multi-instrumentalist
A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...
and folk-rock singer/songwriter.
McKeown began her career in the folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
scene. She released her first album, Monday Morning Cold, on her own label (TVP Records), travelling throughout New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
while still a student at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
in order to promote the record. Although she had begun studying ornithology
Ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
, she graduated from Brown with a degree in ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...
.
McKeown's music is difficult to categorize in terms of genre; it has touched upon pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, swing, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, folk, and electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
, as well as many other genres. McKeown cites The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (book)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the title of the first of six books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction "trilogy" by Douglas Adams . The novel is an adaptation of the first four parts of Adams's radio series of the same name. The novel was first published in...
as an influence on her music.
The Philadelphia Weekly recently described McKeown's music, saying:
More singer-songwriters should follow the lead of Erin McKeown, the
kooky songbird who's proved both playful and daring throughout her
career. With a lilting delivery and chameleonic instrumentation, she
even slipped into French for "Coucou," a gem off her unlikely standards
album Sing You Sinners. But with McKeown, is anything really unlikely?
McKeown continues to perform regularly, spending much of her time touring throughout the world with artists such as Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums, and is widely considered a feminist icon.-Biography:...
, Josh Ritter
Josh Ritter
Josh Ritter is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and author who performs and records with The Royal City Band. Ritter is known for his distinctive Americana style and narrative lyrics. In 2006 he was named one of the "100 Greatest Living Songwriters" by Paste magazine.- Early life :Josh...
, the Indigo Girls
Indigo Girls
The Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. They met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area...
, Martin Sexton
Martin Sexton
Martin Sexton is an American singer-songwriter and producer originally from Syracuse, New York.- Early life :Sexton grew up the tenth of twelve children in a working class Irish-American family. He acquired his first guitar, a Sears & Roebuck acoustic, at the age of 14 and later played in local...
, Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird is an American musician, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.- Early life and the Bowl of Fire :...
, Thea Gilmore
Thea Gilmore
Thea Eve Gilmore is a British female singer-songwriter. She began her career working in a recording studio, where she was discovered by her now long-time collaborator, producer and sometime co-songwriter Nigel Stonier, whom she married in October 2005.-Career:Gilmore was born in Oxford to Irish...
, Melissa Ferrick
Melissa Ferrick
-Early life:Ferrick was raised in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Herfather John was a well-liked public school teacher who managed several free-jazz bands on the side. As a child, Ferrick would often accompany her father to clubs on Boston's North Shore to watch the bands play. She began taking...
, Allison Miller
Allison Miller (drummer)
Allison Miller is a New York City-based drummer, singer, and composer.Miller has performed with songwriting vocalists Ani DiFranco, Natalie Merchant, and Erin McKeown, and toured with avant-garde saxophonist Marty Ehrlich and organist Doctor Lonnie Smith....
, and others. McKeown also took part in Queerstock, a music festival dedicated to promoting LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
musicians.
Early in her career, she also collaborated with Beth Amsel
Beth Amsel
Beth Amsel is an American folk singer/songwriter. She grew up in Long Island and moved to Colorado at the age of thirteen. In 1997, she moved to the East Coast and joined the New England folk scene. She has performed with The Weepies, Jess Klein, Erin McKeown and Rose Polenzani as Voices on the...
, Jess Klein
Jess Klein
Jess Klein is an American singer/songwriter. A native of Rochester, NY, Klein picked up the acoustic guitar and started writing songs while living in Kingston, Jamaica in her late teens. On a whim, she auditioned for a guest slot at a local weekly dub poetry and music session...
, and Rose Polenzani
Rose Polenzani
Rose Polenzani is an independent folk musician. She was raised in the Chicago area and attended Knox College before leaving to pursue a singing career. She is currently living in Boston, Massachusetts. Her singing style is distinctive and emotionally charged. At least one free download is always...
; the four of them performed as Voices on the Verge
Voices on the Verge
Voices on the Verge was a folk, country, and rock band formed as a collaboration between four young, formerly-independent, female musicians: Jess Klein, Erin McKeown, Rose Polenzani, and Beth Amsel....
.
McKeown's 2005 album, We Will Become Like Birds
We Will Become Like Birds
We Will Become Like Birds is the fourth album by Erin McKeown. It was released via Nettwerk Records in 2005 and features contributions from Juana Molina and Peter Mulvey.-Track listing:# Aspera# Air# Life On the Moon# To The Stars...
(produced by Tucker Martine
Tucker Martine
Tucker Martine is an American, Grammy nominated record producer, musician and composer who has worked with artists such as My Morning Jacket, Mudhoney, Bill Frisell, The Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens, R.E.M., Laura Veirs, Spoon, and Tift Merritt...
), served as a departure from her earlier work, with a more rock-oriented sound. At a September 1, 2008, concert at The Gravity Lounge in Charlottesville, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, McKeown told the audience that she wrote this album "in an attempt to write myself out of the worst heartache
Love sickness
Being lovestruck is a non-medical term used to describe mental and physical symptoms associated with falling in love: 'love-struck. It means to be hit by love...you are hit in your heart by the emotion of love'....
I'd experienced up to that point."
Her next studio release, Sing You Sinners
Sing You Sinners (album)
Sing You Sinners is the fifth album by Erin McKeown. Released in 2006 via Nettwerk Records, it is an album of a variety of American standards, with one original composition, "Melody".-Track listing:# Get Happy# Paper Moon# Coucou# Melody...
, was released in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
on the 23 October 2006 and in the United States on January 9, 2007 by Nettwerk Records LLC
Nettwerk
The Nettwerk Music Group is the umbrella company for Nettwerk Management, Nettwerk Records, Nettwerk One Publishing, Nutone Records, and Artwerk. With over 150 employees, the Vancouver-based company has offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Boston, Nashville, and Hamburg...
. It consists mostly of covers of jazz standards from the 1920s through 1950s.
McKeown's latest record, Hundreds of Lions, was released under Righteous Babe Records
Righteous Babe Records
Righteous Babe Records is an American independent record label. It was created by progressive folksinger Ani DiFranco in 1990 to release her own songs in lieu of being beholden to a mainstream record company.-History:...
on October 13, 2009. Additionally, a series of web concerts recorded in 2009 are available at McKeown's website. McKeown is also currently member of an unsigned band known as "emma", which she created with her friend Allison Miller
Allison Miller (drummer)
Allison Miller is a New York City-based drummer, singer, and composer.Miller has performed with songwriting vocalists Ani DiFranco, Natalie Merchant, and Erin McKeown, and toured with avant-garde saxophonist Marty Ehrlich and organist Doctor Lonnie Smith....
. McKeown has plans to write a book of poetry.
McKeown is noted for her energetic stage presence and her habit of wearing tailored suits, often with ties and Fluevog shoes, to performances.
She grew up in Fredericksburg, Virginia
Fredericksburg, Virginia
Fredericksburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia located south of Washington, D.C., and north of Richmond. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 24,286...
, and now lives in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
.
She occasionally performs big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
music with the Beantown Swing Orchestra
Beantown Swing Orchestra
The Beantown Swing Orchestra is a Boston-based 18-piece big band that was formed in 2006 by Frank Hsieh. Initially specializing in performing the classic dance music from the Swing Era, the band has since expanded its repertoire to include music from the 1950s and 1960s, particularly the...
.
McKeown was selected to be a 2011-2012 fellow at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
's Berkman Center for Internet & Society
Berkman Center for Internet & Society
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is a research center at Harvard University that focuses on the study of cyberspace. Founded at Harvard Law School, the center traditionally focused on internet-related legal issues. On May 15, 2008, the Center was elevated to an interfaculty initiative of...
. There, she will "work to connect the worlds of policy, art, and technology while considering questions about how to make a creative life a viable vocation."
Discography
- Monday Morning ColdMonday Morning ColdMonday Morning Cold is the first album by musician Erin McKeown. It was released in 1999 via her own record label, TVP Records, while she was still a student at Brown University...
(TVP Records) (1999) - Distillation (TVP Records) (2000)
- Grand (Nettwerk RecordsNettwerkThe Nettwerk Music Group is the umbrella company for Nettwerk Management, Nettwerk Records, Nettwerk One Publishing, Nutone Records, and Artwerk. With over 150 employees, the Vancouver-based company has offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Boston, Nashville, and Hamburg...
) (2003) - We Will Become Like BirdsWe Will Become Like BirdsWe Will Become Like Birds is the fourth album by Erin McKeown. It was released via Nettwerk Records in 2005 and features contributions from Juana Molina and Peter Mulvey.-Track listing:# Aspera# Air# Life On the Moon# To The Stars...
(Nettwerk RecordsNettwerkThe Nettwerk Music Group is the umbrella company for Nettwerk Management, Nettwerk Records, Nettwerk One Publishing, Nutone Records, and Artwerk. With over 150 employees, the Vancouver-based company has offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Boston, Nashville, and Hamburg...
) (2005) - Sing You SinnersSing You Sinners (album)Sing You Sinners is the fifth album by Erin McKeown. Released in 2006 via Nettwerk Records, it is an album of a variety of American standards, with one original composition, "Melody".-Track listing:# Get Happy# Paper Moon# Coucou# Melody...
(Nettwerk RecordsNettwerkThe Nettwerk Music Group is the umbrella company for Nettwerk Management, Nettwerk Records, Nettwerk One Publishing, Nutone Records, and Artwerk. With over 150 employees, the Vancouver-based company has offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Boston, Nashville, and Hamburg...
) (2006) - Lafayette (Live) (TVP Records) (2007)
- Small Deviant Things, vol.1 (TVP Records) (2008)
- Hundreds of Lions (TVP Records) (2009) (October 13, 2009)
- 3 Songs feat. Marc Dalio + Matt Douglas (TVP Records) (2010) (December 7, 2010)
- F*ck That! Erin McKeown's Anti-Holiday Album (TVP Records) (2011) (November 1, 2011)
External links
- Official home page
- Washington Post review of We Will Become Like Birds
- Interview with Erin McKeown - small WORLD Podcast 2006
- Erin McKeown's April 2006 Daytrotter Recording Session
- http://www.daytrotter.com/article/37/free-songs-erin-mckeown
- Interview with Erin McKeown - Lesbilicious Magazine 2008
- Audio interview with Erin McKeown and Jill Sobule on Well-Rounded Radio, 2009
- Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour Show #552 - WMV Video
- Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour Show #552 - MP3 Audio
- Erin McKeown talks to the PBS NewsHour