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PGN FEATURE
Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com Jan. 11-17, 2013
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Dining Out Family Portrait Get Out and Play Out & About Q Puzzle Scene in Philly Worth Watching
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Photos: Merri Cyr
Erin McKeown hits the road with new album By Larry Nichols larry@epgn.com
Queer singer-songwriter, producer and activist Erin McKeown is back with a new batch of songs and a new tour for 2013, thanks to her latest album. “Manifestra” is more political than any of her previous efforts. “It’s certainly more directly political and the subject matter of the songs is more clearly political than anything I’ve done before,” McKeown said. “I’ve always had political thoughts and opinions, but I kept them separate from my music for a really long time out of fear of how bad music can
sound when a political message overrides the musicality. So I was afraid of doing that for a long time and then it felt urgent to give it a try.” M c Ke ow n h a s always incorporated numerous influences in her music, from folk and jazz to rock and pop and everything in between. “Manifestra”
finds her broadening her range with even more instrumentation and styles. “I used the same palette,” she said. “It’s nearly all the same instruments — some electronic drums, real drums, guitars, bass, piano, horn and strings, but it’s like I turned the distortion up.” The album also features a songwrit-
ing contribution from journalist and TV personality Rachel Maddow. “Rachel and I have known each other for a long time,” McKeown said. “I live in Western Massachusetts and she still lives here part-time and lived here for a long time. She was a radio DJ on our local morning show and we were admirers of each other. In 2005 she had me on her ‘Air America’ show and we got to talk a little bit of politics. As her career has gone on we’ve stayed in touch. I was asked to do a benefit for the World Wildlife Conservancy after the Deepwater Horizon spill. There was another singer-songwriter on the bill who was collaborating with Ira PAGE 18