Fri 10/20 @ 7:30PM
Sun 10/22 @ 7PM
New York-based singer/musician/humorist Nellie McKay has been building a fan base in Northeast Ohio through her many sold-out appearances at venues such as Nighttown and Lorain County’s Riverdog Retreat.
McKay is one of those oddball performers who blends humor and subtly serious messages into her eclectic pop music. Her 2004 debut album Get Away From Me established her as an artist who didn’t fit into any easily marketed genre; it seemed almost a mistake that it came out on a major label like Columbia.
Since then, she’s gone her own way, releasing a series of intriguing projects on her own label, including Normal as Blueberry Pie, a tribute to Doris Day and 2015’a My Weekly Reader, which featured covers of ’60s songs, a bizarre collection of the familiar (“Itchycoo Park,” “If I Fell,” “Sunny Afternoon”) and the obscure (Moby Grape’s “Murder in my Heart for the Judge”), none of which seems like it would be suited to her style, which of course is what makes these renditions weird and wonderful.
Since we saw her last, she’s released a new album called Hey Guys, Watch This, her first album of original material in more than a decade. Once again she’s off on a tangent. The album was recorded in West Virginia with an ensemble called the Carpenter Ants and is soaked in the sounds of Appalachia.
She’ll be performing at the Mill on Main in Oberlin on Friday October 20 and at Market Garden Brewery in Ohio City on Sunday October 22. Get tickets to both shows here.