Erin McKeown

Let’s consider retiring the descriptor “folk-rock.” Or at least let’s consider applying it with caution to Erin McKeown, a frequent recipient of the tag across her 10-plus-year career. Sure, at the core, McKeown is a singer/ songwriter—recall her early efforts alongside Beth Amsel, Jess Klein and Rose Polenzani in Voices on the Verge—but that’s not synonymous with “folk-rock.” And most importantly, her music is much too restless and curious to wear a two-word label.

For starters, there’s her Sing You Sinners album, which rolled out covers of jazz standards from across the decades, including the Bing Crosby-owned title track. And last fall’s Hundreds of Lions is her most experimental release yet. Funded by a series of Internet concerts, the results feel somehow rustic and unapologetically modern. Teaming up with fellow multi-instrumentalist and longtime musical partner Sam Kassirer—perhaps best known for his work with Josh Ritter and Langhorne Slim (two others for whom the term “folk-rock” is sorely lacking)—McKeown recorded in a farmhouse studio and a nearby country church. There’s your rustic part of the equation. The modern part stems from, in McKeown’s words, “squish[-ing] acoustic sounds through synthesizers.”

The spoils include “Santa Cruz,” its yearn and its jittery pulse coalescing into the catchy stuff of pop singles, the big emotion and even bigger strings of “(Put the Fun Back in) the Funeral,” and the clap-along, sing-along burlesque of “The Rascal.” At the center is the piano-pushed “The Lions.” Its title might make you think of Van Morrison’s “Listen to the Lion,” but the song’s clearly in possession of an epic mood and majesty all its own. And its pivotal line could serve as McKeown’s more-than-folk-rock musical mission statement: “There’s a risk, there’s a twist, in anything worth doing.” —Rick Cornell