See Lori McKenna Sing Song She Wrote for Tim McGraw on ‘Colbert’
Awards season continues for songwriter and artist Lori McKenna, who is following her recent Grammy win for “Humble and Kind” as Best Country Song with an ACM nomination in the same category, as well as one for Songwriter of the Year. Tim McGraw is also up for ACM Single of the Year for his rendition of the tune with a powerful message that has resonated throughout one of the more divisive and turbulent periods in recent history.
McKenna, backed by a handful of musicians, took the song to The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on CBS Monday night, for a performance that was at once intimate and profoundly moving. The song, featured on McKenna’s solo LP, The Bird and the Rifle, was penned as advice for her five children. The “Girl Crush” co-writer admits she could have used some life-affirming counsel back at the start of the new millennium when she released her first album, Paper Wings and Halo.
“The biggest thing I wish I knew then is, I can do this! I’ve always had a confidence issue, not in the way that stage fright keeps people from performing but more in a way that I’m always questioning, ‘Am I really good enough to do this?'” McKenna tells Rolling Stone Country. “My career has been crazy lucky. The way it all worked and the timing of it all. . . I couldn’t have written it better.”
McKenna also co-wrote four songs with Sunny Sweeney for the Texas performer’s new album Trophy (out March 10th), including the acerbic title track and the poignant “Bottle By My Bed.”
“Humble and Kind” and McKenna will compete for top prizes at the 52nd Academy of Country Music Awards, hosted by Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley and airing live from