{"id":3144,"date":"2011-08-08T22:06:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-09T05:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3144"},"modified":"2011-08-08T22:06:00","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T05:06:00","slug":"nellie-mckay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/nellie-mckay\/","title":{"rendered":"NELLIE McKAY"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NELLIE<\/h1>\n

NELLIE McKAY<\/h1>\n

Sharing ideas and changing hearts and minds, one vegan restaurant at a time<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If you ever find yourself in a vegan restaurant and you see a young blond woman at a table that\u2019s groaning from the weight of the food on it, don\u2019t be alarmed\u2014it might just be Nellie McKay writing songs. She describes her ideal creative space thus: \u201cIn a vegan restaurant, eating a dairy-free caesar salad, a milkshake that tastes like a Butterfinger bar, chickpea fries, fake hot dogs, mock fried chicken, mashed potatoes, malai kofta, samosas and beer. I prefer to do more eating than writing\u2014it\u00a0really does help.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKay\u2019s experiences with meat-free menus have now produced the giddily diverse Home Sweet Mobile Home<\/em>, her first new album of original material since 2007. Mobile<\/em> is the operative word in the title\u2014the singer, songwriter and pianist recorded in Los Angeles, New York, Jamaica and Pennsylvania\u2019s Pocono Mountains. \u201cMoving around so much created a sense of chaos that I hope helped the music,\u201d she says. McKay\u2019s mother, Robin Pappas, served as her co-producer and picked the musicians who play on the record. \u201cIf it was left to me, it would be like the scene in [the 2007 comedy film] Walk Hard<\/em> where Dewey Cox has a 50-piece orchestra, an Aboriginal choir,\u00a024-hour sessions and a real goat, which actually sounds like heaven,\u201d she quips. \u201cLuckily, Robin found good people. It\u2019s always a good idea to work with musicians who are better than the material, and that\u2019s what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York City native has been broadening her horizons lately. Last year she released Normal As Blueberry Pie<\/em>, an album of songs originally recorded by Doris Day. She says she drew from that experience \u201ca renewed resolve to try my best to write standards, songs that can last for always.\u201d McKay has also tried her hand at acting, taking her first starring role in the new independent film Downtown Express<\/em>. \u201cI love the movies, but I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m any good at it,\u201d she admits. \u201cI have trouble taking written lines seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also remains a passionate advocate for animal rights\u2014and is perfectly happy to use her musical stardom as a way to get the message out. \u201cYou try to make the world better through music,\u201d she says. \u201cYou try to share ideas. You try to change hearts and minds. Most people don\u2019t want<\/em> to make animals suffer\u2014but most people do, because they eat them. I would hope on some level music can open a door, even a little bit, that otherwise would have been closed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Chris Neal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NELLIE McKAY Sharing ideas and changing hearts and minds, one vegan restaurant at a time If you ever find yourself in a vegan restaurant and you see a young blond woman at a table that\u2019s groaning from the weight of the food on it, don\u2019t be alarmed\u2014it might just be Nellie McKay writing songs. She […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[2305,2304,1062,10156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3146,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3144\/revisions\/3146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}