news-record.com

As the Lisa Dames/Lori McKenna show for the EMF Fringe Festival demonstrated Saturday night at Triad Stage, the part of the country you're from doesn't determine the amount of country in you.

St. Louis native Dames belts out brassy country with a head-turning twang. Accompanied by local guitarist Sam Frazier, the 40-year-old mother of two revealed she still checks out the masculine merchandise market on her honky-tonk shout-out to the boys in the big hats, "Good Time Lookin'."

Dubbed the queen of grass-roots marketing by Frazier, Dames impressed McKenna with her shrink-wrapped minivan replicating her latest album cover, "No One Like Me."

Though she admitted to also wanting her own vehicle done over to display her image, McKenna, a mother of five, said it wouldn't work for her. "My three teenage sons wouldn't drive anything with Mom's picture all over it," she said, joking.

McKenna talks with the broad Boston accent of her native Stoughton, Mass., but she sings with a Southern accent. Her sound is more folk/punk than country.

Country audiences discovered her in 2005 when Faith Hill was so impressed with McKenna's songwriting that she went back and added three McKenna tunes - "Fireflies," "If You Ask" and "Stealing Kisses" - to a supposedly completed album, naming it after McKenna's tune "Fireflies."

After the album hit No. 1, McKenna was invited on the 2007 Faith Hill/Tim McGraw tour and also has been opening for Trisha Yearwood.

McKenna sounds like a blend of Dolly Parton and Lucinda Williams mixed with a dash of June Carter Cash and a pinch of Alanis Morissette. With the help of accompanist Mark Erelli, her arrangements are beautifully crafted and presented, with no yee-hah licks.

Some call it country because it has a twangy accent, but the music and the lyrics are too intelligent for the stuff that passes for today's country music.

Even when she tackles a country music staple on "Drinkin' Problem," her take on it rises above the competition: "I never touch the stuff, but, honey, I'll tell you what/You can't count all the ways it touches me."

McKenna had an easy rapport with the audience, asking them at one point if everybody was OK, then adding that she didn't know what she'd do if they weren't. "Because this is the only thing I know how to do," she said, laughing.

She seemed startled at the sight of a barefoot dancer in an aisle. "I don't usually get dancers. I'm not here to make you happy," she said, joking. "I usually make people cry."

She mocked her lack of notoriety, admitting she didn't have a signature song, but asking if the attendees would freak out anyway if she cued them when she was about to play her big number. It took two tries, but the crowd finally erupted on cue as she played the intro to "Stealing Kisses."

With a talent like this, McKenna won't be without a signature for long. This sound has her name all over it.