Lori McKenna "I Know You"

I did this interview with author Sandra Boynton, who writes and illustrates children's books, and I asked her if her family and friends ever had this moment of discovery where they looked at one of her characters and said:

"Hey, I think that cow is me?!?"

She laughed, and pointed out that her renderings were generally benign, so folks in her life didn't mind if they were portrayed as a Pig or a Goose or a Chicken.

It must be a little harder, and weirder, if you're a songwriter and your lyrics aren't benign.

If you write incisive or sad or angry lyrics, that you record and put out to the world, are your family and friends wondering if those cutting remarks are about themselves? It must be especially true if you use a little of your real life as a starting point.

You know, you start a song about a break-up, using a line from a recent argument you had with your spouse. But because you are a storyteller, the characters in the song take the argument to deeper, more hurtful places and the story ends with the characters splitting.

Does your spouse then worry that your little spat about cleaning the coffeemaker has really led you to consider divorce?

Hopefully, your spouse understands your creative process. But how about your mother-in-law?

Since being in the room for this interview*, I have always wished I could've been a fly on the wall, the first time Lori McKenna's husband's Mom heard this tune.

Lori describes "I Know You" as a list of bragging rights she has about her husband, as she reels off all of the little details that have accumulated through years of marriage. And no doubt, many, if not all of the details are about her real life husband. Then the song makes mention of the husband's mother and her wooden spoon and her tattoo.

I get the hugest kick hearing Lori crack up at the end of the song---which was pretty new at the time of the interview---realizing that her mother-in-law would probably hear this song and blanch at the way she was portrayed.

Awkward next family get together!


See the video on Youtube.

* She introduces the song around the 15:45 minute mark.