Ali McGuirk hits the ground running with new concert series
Ali McGuirk has been busy. That’s not something many musicians can say as they re-emerge from 16 months of relative isolation.
Earlier this month, McGuirk started a monthly concert series playing with Session Americana that runs into the fall at unique outdoor sites from Stockbridge to Hingham. The locally raised soul singer-songwriter-guitarist has a show with her band this Friday at Boston Harbor Distillery (her first with the quartet since the winter of 2020). Storied Mass record label Signature Sounds releases her new single — a cover of Bobby Womack’s “That’s The Way I Feel About You” — with proceeds of the tune going to Sweet Relief Musicians Fund.
Between rehearsing and prepping the single, she’s been living up in Burlington, Vt., and hanging with fellow soul champs Dwight & Nicole, traveling south to Providence to record with producer/ indie-roots star Jonah Tolchin, and playing loads of guitar.
“June is hitting so hard that I feel like things are getting back to normal in a way I didn’t expect them to be,” McGuirk said on a visit back to Somerville. “I did stall out for a while but Jonah and I have been working on this single for a long time. Now things are happening fast from booking gigs to Signature Sounds picking it up.”
McGuirk began her rise from local sensation to knocking on the door of national recognition in 2017 with “Slow Burn,” an EP that nodded to quiet storm R&B, neo soul and Marvin Gaye (always Marvin Gaye). Her new stuff will be less dreamy, with a few harder, tougher edges.
“When Jonah heard (the “That’s The Way I Feel About You” cover) he said, ‘We’ve got to make sure this sound is represented on the new record,’” she said. “A song or two will go in that old-school soul ballad direction … but we spent a lot of time (during the Providence sessions) making tight arrangements. The rawness that existed in ‘Slow Burn’ will still be there for sure. It was important to capture both raw and tight since so much of my musical identity is untamed improvisation, but having little moments planned out to lift the music is really fun.”
After hearing too many stories of abandoned projects and writer’s block, learning about McGuirk’s time composing, recording and rehearsing is refreshing — although she says the LP won’t be finished until at least the end of 2021.
“I didn’t bake bread,” she said with a laugh. “My goal during COVID lockdown was to practice a lot of guitar, to really start to think of myself as a guitar player. But I did slow down knowing my artistic output would be less. I did a lot of coloring, a little embroidery, hiking and backpacking and cross country skiing.”
With some luck, McGuirk will have more time for guitar and zero time for coloring and embroidery. Record labels have finally taken notice of her voice and songcraft; her fan base will hopefully continue to swell with a crowded concert calendar.
“I feel like I have a moment of momentum with the single and these summer shows,” she said. “I don’t know if this will be my busiest summer ever but I feel like it’s going to be busy enough.”
“As for the record, it’s going to be a minute,” she added with a laugh. “Maybe six months, maybe a year, I can’t tell.”
Some of the songs on “Slow Burn” took McGuirk nearly a decade to work into pieces of magic. So we’ll wait. OK, we won’t wait a decade. But we can be patient for a few months, especially with this many McGuirk performances lined up.
For music and details on all Ali McGuirk’s live dates, go to alimcguirk.com.
Go online to BostonHerald.com to see the premiere of Ali McGuirk’s video for “That’s the Way I Feel About You.”