Under the lonesome cry of the midnight train, stars twinkling over hillbilly lights in the mountain fog, Nellie McKay returns with her new album, Hey Guys, Watch This. Recorded in Charleston, West Virginia with The Carpenter Ants — Michael Lipton, Ted Harrison, Jupie Little, and Mark Bates — and a roving retinue of musical compadres, Hey Guys, Watch This traces the haunted sounds of Appalachia through lush sonic textures. So unpack your washtub bass, fill up your red cup, and pull on your shitkickers — ’cos the night is young and the moon is bright, even if we’re not.
Nellie has produced an array of wildly varying albums, including her groundbreaking 2004 debut Get Away from Me and Normal As Blueberry Pie: A Tribute to Doris Day…
Tag Archive: Nellie McKay
Twenty-one years ago, the 21-year-old Nellie McKay released her debut album Get Away from Me to much critical acclaim. Reviewers from the New York Times to Pitchfork and PopMatters praised its eclectic mix of musical styles from Tin Pan Alley to hip-hop, cabaret jazz to spoken word, blues to Broadway, singer-songwriter to rock, and its unclassifiable singularity.
McKay was compared to everyone from Doris Day to Frank Zappa, Eminem to Green Day, and Tom Waits to Randy Newman. While the album made Billboard‘s Top 200 chart and McKay appeared on network television shows, it was never a big financial success. At the same time, McKay squabbled over creative differences with her record company and was soon dropped by her label.