With her many acclaimed talents, local songwriter and singer Lori McKenna could quite easily live a life of glamour in a fast-paced city among celebrities.  But that's not what she's all about.

The 42-year-old Stoughton resident, who lives with her husband and five children in a modest home, loves the small-town life.  She lives right down the street from where she grew up, cleaning her own house and driving a mini van.

And even though she tours around the country and writes songs for mammoth country stars, such as Faith Hill and Keith Urban, she makes sure that she has time for her family and friends.

"It's really a blessing.   My life is very regular in most ways – it's fun," she said.  

McKenna, whose music is considered to be both country and folk, has made her mark singing about the pain and passion of every day living.  She has released five CDs, and will be releasing a new one, Lorraine, on January 25.  She'll also be performing songs from Lorraine at Club Passim in Cambridge this Friday and Saturday. 

The CD may soon become the local favorite, as it contains a song that honors Stoughton, called "Buy This Town."  She delayed her entire CD for the song, taking time to record it exactly the way she wanted (See lyrics for song below).

"That song, more than any other, talks about my neighbors…. It's a love song to Stoughton, and I didn't want to put it out until I loved it to pieces," she said.

In the song's lyrics, McKenna talks about the blue-collar friendliness of the town, saying she wants to keep it  "small and rough – full of third shift dreamers and high school love."   She loves the flavor of the town, and feels comfortable running to the grocery store in old pants.

"People come up and ask me about my job, because it's interesting, but they very rarely make it a big deal," she said.  

The youngest of six children, McKenna (whose maiden name is Giroux) grew up in an Irish Catholic family, with her father a singer/songwriter, and her mother a singer in the church choir.  She is named after her mother, Lorraine, who died when she was seven.  She started writing poetry shortly after her mother died, and later turned some of those poems into songs.  She also enjoyed singing and playing musical instruments with her siblings, and two of her brothers became songwriters as well. 

When she was just 19, she married her high school sweetheart Gene, who is a plumber for a gas company.  They moved down the street, and she continued to write music while raising her family.   

Then, when she was 27, she started performing locally, encouraged by both her husband and children. She started singing at open mikes in the Boston area, including the Blackthorn Tavern in Easton, and Club Passim, in Cambridge.  She recorded her first CD, Paper Wings & Halos, in 1998, and was named artist of the year by WUMB, 91.9 FM, a Boston folk radio station that regularly plays her music.  Since then, she has won numerous other awards, including Boston Music Awards. 

Her career has done nothing but gain steam since her open mike days.  In 2007, she toured with Faith Hill and Tim McGraw as the opening act of their "Soul2Soul" tour, in which she played to crowds of up to 20,000 people.   Hill recorded three of her songs, for her 2005 CD Fireflies, which included the title track. 

Other country greats who have recorded her music include Carrie Underwood, Alison Krauss, LeAnn Rimes and Keith Urban.

McKenna travels to Nashville to collaborate on song-writing, but usually writes her songs at home.  She tours on weekends, and actually loses money on those tours, but she said it's something that recording artists have to do.  She makes up for the losses by writing and publishing music.

Though she has brought her children on tours in the past, they usually stay at home. She has four boys and one girl – David, 6, Meghan, 9, Christopher 16, Mark 18, and Brian, 21, who is also a songwriter and plans to go to Nashville next year.  She said her neighborhood has been a great place to bring up her kids, with people from different cultures and lifestyles.

"There's everything here.  My children have learned so much about world," she said.

McKenna writes a lot of personal songs, and many fans appreciate her ability to understand what's going on in their hearts.  She said she gets ideas for her songs through her own relationship with her husband, as well as talking to her friends about their lives. 

Though some of the songs talk about affairs, drinking problems, and pained relationships, they're not accurate reflections of their lives.  She said she exaggerates the stories, using "poetic license," and her husband doesn't take it personally.

"He totally understands how my brain works," she said.

Besides being happy with her town and family, she is grateful for the balance of her career and home life.  For the most part, she doesn't travel for more than two nights, and gets help from her mother-in-law with her children.

She said songwriting is her strong point and performing comes second, but she really enjoys balancing the two.  And though she knows a lot of her songs won't make people dance, she's happy if they make them cry.

 "I have the benefit to express myself that way," she said.

More information about Lori McKenna can be found on her Facebook page and Myspace pages.   Her Club Passim performances are on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Dec. 16, 17 and 18.  On Thursday, she will appear with her trio, and on Friday and  Saturday, she is performing a solo CD release show.  She'll also be performing January 7, at the Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, to honor Dick Pleasants, of WUMB-FM.