A Mild Case of Cabin Fever: Erin McKeown, 'Hundreds of Lions'

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TIMES ARE GETTING tougher for folk singers on indie labels, but Erin McKeown found a clever way to raise funds for her new album, "Righteous Babe). She filmed four performances in and around her home, calling the series "Cabin Fever." For less than the price of a concert ticket ($10 for each episode or $30 for all four), fans could watch the performances over her Web site and get a sneak peak into the sound of her new album.

So there's got to be some personal experience in "The Lions," when she sings: "There's a risk, there's a twist, in anything worth doing." Her move to Righteous Babe after a series of albums on Nettwerk is a big transition, but one that makes a lot of sense: her bold voice and brassy lyrics have more in common with Ani DiFranco than with most major-label folksters.

While she sounds like a happy Fiona Apple on the swaying, bouncy "The Foxes," McKeown is really at her finest on the moodier, mellower songs on "Hundreds of Lions." The haunting "(Put the Fun Back In the) Funeral" finds McKeown singing of depression with a nearly hollow voice over sparsely plucked guitar. And when it sounds like she's trapped inside a coffin ("I can't breathe, I can't breathe / in this box, ahh / I can't breathe"), the song becomes all the creepier.

The album-closing "Seamless" is even more sparse; other than a few strummed guitar chords, McKeown sings nearly unaccompanied, and her voice echos as if she's hiding in a cavern.

She even does anger well: "All That Time You Missed" captures the frustration of a fading bond with a lover. Instead of screaming, though, she channels her rage into an devastated disappointment. The fact that her voice still comes through strongly even when she sounds like a shattered mess is a testament to her inner resilience: if she can find a way to raise funds for an independently-released album, then a couple of crummy relationships along the way just don't seem so bad.

» Jammin' Java, 227 Maple Ave. E., Vienna; with Jill Sobule, Mon., Oct. 19, 8:00p.m.; $18; 703-255-1566.
» Night Cat, 5 Goldsborough Street, Easton, Md.; with Jill Sobule, Tue., Oct. 20, 8:00p.m.; $25; 410-690-4544.

Written by Express contributor Catherine Lewis
Photos courtesy Girlie Action, Michael Weintrob