Lori McKenna (Hayley Reardon opens)

On Friday, November 4, the  me&thee welcomes Lori McKenna back to our stage. Boston area native Lori McKenna has made up for a late start in the music world with several fine albums, many songs that have been covered by others, and an extensive touring career.   Marblehead’s own Hayley Reardon, now a high school freshman, who is developing quite a music career, opens.

Lori McKenna is a mother of five from Stoughton, Mass. There she lives quietly - well, as quietly as a house with five children can get - with her husband of 22 years, Gene, a plumber for the local gas company. She is also an acclaimed singer-songwriter who was thrust into the limelight when superstar Faith Hill included three of McKenna’s songs on the Fireflies album. Prior to her 2007 Warner Bros. album Unglamorous, she independently released Paper Wings & Halo, Pieces of Me, The Kitchen Tapes, and Bittertown. She’s quick to point out that her songs’ tangibly intimate scenarios are not necessarily a journal of her own home life. Rather, they’re the collision point of autobiography, keen observation, and a vivid imagination. “That’s how my brain works,” she says. “I can take a little piece of something that I heard somewhere and turn it into a song written in the first person.” After the initial exposure from the Hill recordings and after appearing with the superstar on The Oprah Winfrey Show, the music community clamored to record her songs. Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood, LeAnn Rimes, Alison Krauss and Keith Urban are just a few to record McKenna’s heartfelt songs. Obviously, her unique perspective continues to connect with artists.

When Hayley Reardon first picked up a guitar in July 2008, this young songstress uncovered both a deep passion and an obvious natural talent, unleashing a flood of beautifully constructed delicately phrased songs. At 12 years old, Boston's WUMB was first to publicly recognize her emerging talent as a winner at the 2009 Boston Folk festival Songwriting Contest. Since then 15 Hayley has achieved additional recognition in numerous competitions. She has released two EPs to date, her debut Beautiful Simplicity and her latest, Hope You're Smiling. Her August Center Stage performance of "Chelsey" at the Indiegrrl Conference in Tennessee garnered her invitations from four respected Nashville publishing firms to co-write with their staff writers.  Hayley's 40 plus performances at coffeehouses and festivals throughout MA, CT and ME have led to a growing number of New England fans, and she has also achieved recognition at a National level for her efforts to build awareness about bullying through her songs "Stand Together" and "She's Falling."  She has teamed with the PACER National Center for Bullying Prevention in their efforts to raise awareness and inspire other young people to believe that "the end of bullying begins with me.”