ABOUT TOWN: Rave Reviews for McKenna

MCKENNA'S RAVE REVIEWS ARE IN-- I wasn't alone in raving about Stoughton singer-songwriter new CD, "Lorraine."  Maverick Magazine, an international country music periodical, gave "Lorraine" it's highest rating (5 stars!) in their March edition. A reviewer for Country Standard Time couldn't stop raving about every track on the CD, ending his review with, "By the time the album closes with Still Down Here, a song modeled after the prayer a young McKenna would recite every night, we know the song, and maybe the album itself, is a personal plea from a daughter to her departed mother to remember those left behind. Maybe it shouldn't mean a thing to the rest of us. But it does. It means everything."  

Performing Songwriter had a whole feature story, with photos, prose and videos.  Nate Dow of the Boston Herald may have said it best: "Although her writing for country stars Faith Hill and Tim McGraw — and her subsequent release of 'Unglamorous' in 2007 — proved to mainstream Nashville that McKenna could not only set ’em up but knock ’em down, it seems that her amicable split with Warner Bros. and return to a Massachusetts-based independent is for the best creatively. Few relate as eloquently to their family and community as McKenna. To wit, the beautiful slice of Americana she depicts in the salute to her hometown (Stoughton), “Buy This Town,”  is the album’s highlight. It was actually written the day after the album was finished, but it came as such a revelation that McKenna made sure it was included. Such is her conviction to her craft and her home."

Click to read About Town's review of McKenna's concert at Newbury Comics in Norwood and click to read a profile on McKenna that ran in Stoughton Patch back in December.

MUSICALLY INCLINED?  Join the country's oldest musical society!  The Old Stoughton Musical Society is holding auditions for their Spring Concert. Rehearsals start on February 21st from 6:45-8:30 p.m. at the Stoughton Historical Society Building, 6 Park Street (Stoughton Center).  For more information, call 781-344-5711.

MORE ACADEMIC KUDOS: More than 400 students in grades 6-8 at the made the Honor Roll for Term 2, according to Principal Wayne Hester.  Names are in alphabetical order, grade order, and differentiate between Honors and High Honors. Congratulations to all the students who have worked so hard to achieve this academic merit.  To those who didn't make it, may it offer them the incentive to put in a little more effort and make it for Term 3!  Here's the link to this term's list:

http://www.snydersstoughton.com/OMS_Term2_Honor_Roll.xls.

Check back later today for the Afternoon Edition of About Town with Mark Snyder.