Lori McKenna - Massachusetts (2013)

2013 release from the Folk/Americana singer/songwriter. Massachusetts is an ostensibly real place. But Massachusetts is also just symbolic name for the emotional geography of Lori McKenna's songs. There are strong resemblances between Lori McKenna's Massachusetts and the real thing. Both are infused with history, where every turn takes you down some road with a tale to tell, maybe a story of your own or of the ones who came before, with hopes and dreams and loves and losses just like yours. They are places of extremes, where love can be a perfect summer day or a bleak November sky, and life can be as wistful as the dead of winter reminiscing of a greener spring. Like anyplace with history, Massachusetts has endured long enough to be able to look back with hard-won wisdom on its own journey, as many of these songs do. It's got heart and spirit and it knows that if you can just weather the hard times and stay committed to the genuine ideal of the way you dream life should be, that sooner or later love really is bound to put it all back together.