''The Tree'' is the tenth studio album by American singer-songwriter

Lori McKenna Lorraine McKenna ( Giroux; born December 22, 1968) is an American folk, Americana, and country music singer-songwriter. In 2016, she was nominated for the Grammy Award for Song of the Year and won Best Country Song for co-writing the hit single " ...

, released on July 20, 2018, through CN Records. The album was made available to stream in its entirety on July 13, 2018, as part of

NPR Music NPR Music is a project of National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization, that launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music ...

's First Listen series.

Background

McKenna's son Christopher played mellotron alongside Cobb on the track "The Lot Behind St Mary's". " Happy People" was previously covered by

Little Big Town Little Big Town is an American country music vocal group from Homewood, Alabama. Founded in 1998, the group has comprised the same four members since its founding: Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman (née Roads), Phillip Sweet, and Jimi Westbro ...

for their 2017 album '' The Breaker''. Cobb played a 12-string

Rickenbacker Rickenbacker International Corporation is a string instrument manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California. The company is credited as the first known maker of electric guitars – a steel guitar in 1932 – and today produces a range ...

on the track as a tribute to

Tom Petty Thomas Earl Petty (October 20, 1950October 2, 2017) was an American musician who was the lead vocalist and guitarist of the rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, formed in 1976. He previously led the band Mudcrutch, was a member of the lat ...

, who died shortly before they recorded it. Speaking to

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

, McKenna referred to "People Get Old" as the "anchor" of the record but that she felt it was inappropriate for the title of the album, deciding on "The Tree" after recognising how much that song said about family. She explained "I've always been obsessed with trees, weirdly, since I was little. So that was the perfect title in my brain and then, “People Get Old” being inspired by my dad, it just seemed fitting to have this be a record about aging and watching your kids go off and watching your parents age. If you had your kids young enough like I did, you have a point in life where your kids are leaving the house at the same time that your parents start showing signs of needing more help" and added that co-writing the title track with,

Natalie Hemby Natalie Nicole Hemby Wrucke (born March 24, 1977) is an American country music songwriter and singer. She has written songs for Lee Ann Womack, Eli Young Band, Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert, Sunny Sweeney, Little Big Town, Jon Pardi, Kacey Musgrav ...

and Aaron Raitiere was a "joyous" experience and that "We wanted it to be about how your family is there for you; even during the times of your life where you are not authentically yourself, you haven’t figured yourself out, that family structure in some silent way is still there for you while you’re figuring it all out. And whether you stay, or you go somewhere else and stay away, or you come back, it’s there for you". Comparing to her first record with Cobb, ''

The Bird and the Rifle ''The Bird and the Rifle'' is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Lori McKenna, released on July 29, 2016, through CN Records. It includes the song "Humble and Kind", which was written by McKenna and first recorded by Tim McGraw f ...

'', McKenna said "I think this record is similar in a lot of ways, sonically and band-wise. It’s not as lush, but it sounds a lot like it. I’m not a really diverse writer, so I feel like the songs all run into one another even though the stories change and my goal is to try to get the songs tighter lyrically. I think it’s very similar to the last record. You know, this isn’t a dance record. I haven’t made my dance record yet."

Commercial performance

The album debuted at No. 39 on Top Country Albums, and No. 3 on Americana/Folk Album Sales with 4,000 sold, which is her best on the chart. It has sold 5,100 copies as of August 2018.

Track listing

Personnel

Dave Cobb Dave Cobb (born July 9, 1974) is an American record producer based in Nashville, Tennessee, best known for producing the work of Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, John Prine, Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, The Highwomen and Rival Sons . Cobb i ...

– producer, guitar,

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

Anderson East Michael Cameron Anderson (born July 17, 1987), known professionally as Anderson East, is an American musician from Athens, Alabama, who currently is based in Nashville, Tennessee. East's sound is notable for combining R&B, soul, and roots rock ...

– lead guitar, sequencing *

– background vocals *

Hillary Lindsey Hillary Lee Lindsey is an American singer-songwriter. She has written songs with or for a number of artists including Michelle Branch, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Shakira, Lady A, Gary Allan, Sara Evans, Carrie Underwood, Kellie Pickler, Bon ...

– background vocals * Christopher McKenna – Mellotron *

– lead vocals, backing vocals, acoustic guitar * Kristen Rogers – background vocals

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tree (album), The Lori McKenna albums 2018 albums