Also, the blazing band helped. McKenna, who accompanied herself on acoustic guitar, was first joined by virtuoso instrumentalists Mark Erelli and Russell Chudnofsky for the opening numbers, "How I Love That Man" and "How Romantic Is That." But when bassist Paul Kochanski and drummer John Sands (moonlighting from Aimee Mann's band) arrived for "I Know You" and stayed, the country-folk campfire became a raging roots inferno: a soul-satisfying crackle of dueling slide and lead guitars, conversational harmonica, and stunningly supple bass and drums.
McKenna's voice, bristling with tang and twang that was much more rural country than college-town coffeehouse, was like an open hand: trusting and nakedly exposed; a lined palm of ridges and peaks; softly calloused from years of hard work and harder-won freedoms. Thus, plangent selections like "Make Every Word Hurt" and "Your Next Lover" felt, as much as sounded, almost regal in their sorrowful strength and humanity.
"Unglamorous," the spirited title track of McKenna's latest album (which also marks her major label debut, for Warner Bros.), found Erelli this time on mandolin, Chudnofsky charging hard on lead guitar, everybody evoking the kind of rollicking rave-ups the late British songwriter Ronnie Lane perfected with his post-Faces '70s band, folk-tinged Slim Chance. From there an ecstatic, jamboree-style reading of the Band's "It Makes No Difference" followed, with grand solo turns galore and Nashville singer-songwriter Stephanie Chapman, who opened the show, joining in on guest vocals.
With five kids, a new puppy, and a husband left to their own devices during her Passim residency, McKenna - who turns 40 today - at one point jokingly fretted about what domestic disasters awaited her back home. She needn't have worried. If she runs her family anything like she treated her band, her set, and her audience Saturday night - deftly, generously, and with a genuine love that was palpable - her house will be running like a well-oiled machine in no time.
