Folk pop, singer-songstress McKenzie Lockhart is happy to have both feet back in her native Alabama soil after trying her hand at pursuing music in Nashville, TN, and more than that, elated to be releasing her most authentic project to date.

Born and raised in the storied Shoals of northern Alabama, Lockhart discovered that her homeland was beckoning her back for a greater purpose after a rough season in Nashville proved that the lure of Music City wasn’t what it was cracked up to be for her.  After moving back to Florence where she currently resides, she took the time to dig deep into her roots and invest in her local music community by establishing a house show movement called CO-OP.  During this this time, Lockhart found her voice afresh and decided to channel her new sound into her first proper EP Interlaced.

Lockhart then went back to Nashville to flesh out these five snapshots of her life with help of Brendan St. Gelais and Zack Zink in the harrowed Smoakstack Studios.

Interlaced represents the culmination of years of writing, working, and growing up for Lockhart as she states in her own words:

“I wrote and recorded throughout high school and over the course of my first two years out of school, but at twenty-four, I feel like I'm just now really finding my voice and VOICES to an extent.”

Lockhart’s lyricism paints a vivid picture of a young artist coming of age and wrestling with what it means to find mature love, community, and faith.  McKenzie’s faith has also been a catalyst in her search to find a deeper honesty within her art, which she hopes will inspire others.

“I grew up heavily involved in church, and I still am today. This lead me to see the need for honest songs and not just honest songs about religion, but honest songs about life…the small heartbeats and moments big and small that flood our days and cause us to contemplate anything larger than ourselves in the first place.”

She continues, “I'm trying much less to constrain myself and more just to make the music I love that I can share with others.”

And you can catch her doing that as she releases her Interlaced EP on September 9, 2016 and continues to tour living rooms all over the country.

PRESS LINKS

TIMES DAILY - THE SHOALS, AL

MOTHER CHURCH PEW - NASHVILLE, TN

Photographer: Noah Tidmore