Ali McGuirk first came to the Word Barn with Session Americana and immediately knocked our socks off with her powerful, stunning, and buttery voice and heartfelt songwriting. Now, she’s back with her full band and a brand new album ready to do the same.
ABOUT ALI McGUIRK
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“2022’s 50 Best Albums of the Year“— “Ms. Ali gets it. And she can play that damn guitar, too. There’s a history scattered through soul music, and blues, that speaks to this aesthetic. Boston and New England last saw this combination with a gal named Sue [Tedeschi] a couple of decades ago.”– Boston Globe
“‘All Back’ feels like it could exist somewhere outside of space and time– it could be on a record in the background of a party in a 1970s bungalow, or it could be on your Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify. Either way, it’s a great listen.” – Consequence of Sound
“The result on Til It’s Gone, her debut for Signature Sounds, provides a wealth of sonic enjoyment.” – PopMatters
“With all the hooks of LSD but more earthy tenderness and smart introspection, McGuirk will be the Bay State’s next big export.” – Boston Herald
“Throughout the album, it’s hard not to think about Susan Tedeschi when you hear McGuirk sing.” – Glide Magazine
“‘Til It’s Gone’ is more than just a showcase of musicianship. McGuirk brings a songwriter’s sensibility, and a millennial’s perspective, to her lyrics… In just a few deft strokes, McGuirk paints a devastating and deeply human picture..” – WBUR
Ali McGuirk has never been a church mouse. In fact, these days, she’s standing at the pulpit. “I feel like I'm writing lyrics that are preaching,” McGuirk said with a laugh, realizing in real time how much her voice as an artist has evolved while writing and arranging her latest album, Watertop. “I’m actually delivering a message, not necessarily processing my feelings, but delivering my thoughts on the matter. That felt like a different role to embody as a songwriter.”
Par for the course, McGuirk has made an exceptional album. Her 2022 release, Til It’s Gone, was widely acclaimed and praised as earthy, tender, and introspective. The atmospheric songs earned her adoration and accolades, including being selected as one of The Boston Globe’s Top 50 Albums of the Year.
This time around, she leans into creating experimental soundscapes filled with her soulful, smoldering sound and aims right for the heart with her songwriting. Altogether, the songs are a microscopic look at our societal values. McGuirk shies away from nothing, exploring the meaning of things like God, empathy, love, and greed.
It’s hard to pinpoint one exact moment that led to the freedom you hear in McGuirk’s songwriting on Watertop. Perhaps the most important of them all, though, was treating social activism—and her care for others—as a spiritual practice. This transformation gave Watertop its raison d’etre, which comes at you quickly with the opening song: a shimmering, soul-forward track called Love Goes First. In it, McGuirk sings, “We’re trying to hold on to what we cannot hold on to / But it’s love / Love is what we need,” over a drum machine and a synth-infused groove. McGuirk’s harmonies were sung by Cilla Bonnie, whose buttery vocals set the stage for the spirit of this opening track.
“Thematically and conceptually, it's definitely a thesis to the record,” McGuirk said of “Love Goes First.” Lyrically, it sets the stage for the album. Although Watertop dances through a range of emotions, McGuirk asserts that there’s nothing more essential than love.
The supporting band across Watertop is one McGuirk is deeply bonded with. They began playing together in 2017 when McGuirk released her first record, Slow Burn. Since then, the band, which McGuirk lovingly calls her polyamorous musical life partners, has only expanded, now including guitarist Sebastian Falvo. On Watertop, the band is tight and cohesive—despite experimentations with genres and tones—in the way only long-time collaborators can be. D’Vibes, (King Fish, Marcus King) an accomplished multi-genre musician in his own right, plays keys throughout the record. His thoughtfully chosen tones marry classic funk to McGuirk's rootsy sound. Watertop, grounded in the R&B tradition, pushes McGuirk’s sound forward without fully walking away from the essence of her voice.
Across the album's eight songs, most of which were recorded at VT Music Lab and all of which were produced by McGuirk and Ezra Oklan, McGuirk’s jazz background readily emerges through her delightfully surprising vocals. However, in crafting Watertop, McGuirk expanded on her traditional songwriting method, making the album her most technically complex release to date. Fueled by the playful and experimental nature of sound engineer Jeremy Mendicino and co-producer Oklan, McGuirk pushes her songs into full-blown soundscapes through ambitiously crafted arrangements.
“A lesson I learned from this one is to trust myself, my ears, and my opinions. I want to keep going in this direction for at least another record—learning more about sound engineering and learning that language,” McGuirk said, describing the power she felt in playing such a technical role in the production of the album.