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Nellie McKay

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For the African-American literature scholar, see Nellie Y. McKay.
Nellie McKay

Nellie McKay (born Nell Marie McKay on 13 April 1982) is a British-born American singer-songwriter, actress and former stand-up comedian, noted for her critically acclaimed debut album Get Away from Me and for her Broadway debut in The Threepenny Opera (2006), for which she won a Theatre World Award.

Biography

McKay (pronounced IPA: [mɪkaɪ] "McEYE") was born in London, England to a Scottish writer/director, Malcolm McKay, and an American actress, Robin Pappas. At the age of two, after her parents divorced, she moved with her mother to New York City, where they stayed until 1994. After one year in Olympia, Washington, the two returned east and lived in the Poconos, where McKay spent her high-school years. In 2000, Nellie McKay graduated from Pocono Mountain Senior High School.

In 2000, McKay started attending the Manhattan School of Music. Being bored and unsatisfied, she dropped out after two years. She started performing as a stand-up comic in Manhattan clubs, and eventually Greenwich Village's gay bars. McKay was briefly associated with New York's anti-folk scene and played alongside Jason Trachtenburg and others at the Sidewalk Cafe in 2002-2003.

In February 2003 McKay opened for the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players at Tonic, on New York's Lower East Side. Jay Ruttenberg, from Time Out New York magazine, attended the show and wrote a prominent feature on McKay. Shortly afterwards, several record labels contacted her and started a bidding war. She eventually signed with Columbia/Sony and started producing her first record in the late summer of 2003.

Her music has showcased different genres, from jazz to rap and disco to funk. Her eclectic style and sharp lyrics distinguish her as an original voice. Her songs sometimes have a political tinge; she "is a proud member of PETA" (album notes), wrote a song ("Columbia Is Bleeding") dealing with the issue of Columbia University's cruelty to animals, and ("John John") about her feelings in favor of political candidate Ralph Nader as well as performing concerts as benefits for WBAI.

Music

Get Away from Me

Template:Sound sample box align left Template:Multi-listen start Template:Multi-listen item Template:Multi-listen end Template:Sample box end Her critically acclaimed first CD, Get Away from Me, was produced by The Beatles sound engineer Geoff Emerick and released by Columbia/Sony Records in February 2004. The title is a play on Norah Jones' Come Away with Me.[1] McKay is said to be the first woman to release a double album as her first release. Originally, her contract with Columbia called for 13 songs, but McKay aggressively lobbied her label for a double album, including bottles of wine, a PowerPoint slideshow, and a mock photo of her threatening Emerick with a gun. The studio agreed, but McKay had to underwrite production costs of the five additional tracks with $25,000 of her own money. Although all the music would fit on a single disc, McKay insisted on a double disc debut to "reclaim the feeling of flipping over a record" (All Music Guide). McKay was one of the major breakout artists from the 2004 SXSW Festival and was a finalist in the 2004 Shortlist Music Prize, and Get Away from Me was on several "Best of 2004" lists.

Pretty Little Head

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Initial release date and delay

Pretty Little Head, which features duets with k.d. lang and McKay's co-star in 'Threepenny Opera', Cyndi Lauper, was originally slated for an 18 October 2005 release. The release date was delayed; initially, the rescheduled date was 27 December 2005; it was then subsequently announced that the release date would be 3 January 2006.

However, McKay announced on 19 December 2005, that she had left Columbia/Sony Records after a dispute over the length of the upcoming album.[2] Just over two weeks following this announcement, a New York Times article surfaced stating McKay said she had been dropped by Columbia Records.[3]

McKay wanted the full 65 minute, 23 track version of Pretty Little Head to be released, but Columbia was only willing to support a 16-track version that ran 48 minutes. (Columbia/Sony was so adamant about the abbreviated version that it sent copies of this version out as promotional copies to critics.) Executives at Columbia insist McKay understood the label wanted an album consisting of 15 or 16 songs. They would further claim the version that Columbia sent out was a mastered sequence that she herself submitted to the label.

McKay expressed her concern at a concert in West Hollywood, 29 November 2005, at the Troubadour, going so far as to distribute the personal e-mail address of Columbia CEO Will Botwin at the performance. As a result of this, Botwin agreed to the 23 track release but was fired by Sony.[4] The subsequent management team dropped McKay from their artist roster. She claims it was probably 'best for everyone.'

Initial reports stated that McKay would release Pretty Little Head on the Internet sometime in January, with a conventional release as early as February; however, this did not come to pass. Her record label troubles were documented in the March 2006 issue of Wired magazine. The article also mentioned the (illegal) availability of the full-length album in MP3 format on the internet.

Similarly, the music chain HMV Canada promoted Pretty Little Head as having a Canadian issue date of February 7 2006, but no release occurred[citation needed].

Resolution and new release date

After nearly nine months of ironing out the legalities between labels, Pretty Little Head was released in the United States on 31 October 2006 on McKay's own label, Hungry Mouse, and was marketed by SpinART Records.[5] Like its predecessor, the album was divided in two discs and included a 44-page color booklet. The album included the intended 23 tracks as originally planned.[6] Release of the album in other countries, including Canada, was delayed until 21 November 2006.

SpinART Bankruptcy

After SpinART declared bankruptcy in 2007, Pretty Little Head was released by Sony in its original, 23-track 2-CD version, effectively bringing this album back to Columbia.

Obligatory Villagers

McKay's third full-length studio release debuted on 25 September 2007.[7] With both of her previous albums lasting over 60 minutes and spanning two discs each, Obligatory Villagers, with only nine tracks (ten if purchased from iTunes), totalling just about 30 minutes was her shortest release to date.[8] Reviews were generally positive,[9][10] though some fans felt the album's new direction didn't have the same bite and wit that McKay's previous outings had provided.[11]. The album was produced on Nellie's own label, Hungry Mouse, and released by Vanguard Records.

Other work

Before splitting with Sony, McKay wrote and recorded several songs for the motion picture Rumor Has It.... The songs were eventually released on the iTunes Store on 27 December 2005.[12]

On 1 February 2007, McKay joined Laurie Anderson, Joan Osborne, Suzanne Vega and the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra for Four Scored, a single performance of reworked songs at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.[13][14]

Template:Sound sample box align left Template:Multi-listen start Template:Multi-listen item Template:Multi-listen end Template:Sample box end McKay has been performing some new material at her recent concerts. One of these songs is called "The In Crowd."[15] McKay has also written two new Christmas-themed songs, "A Christmas Dirge" and "Take Me Away," both of which are available on her web site.

Other projects McKay has been reported to be working on include a musical film now in pre-production called The Amazing True Story of a Teenage Single Mom based on a graphic novel by Katherine Arnoldi and an original musical about a tenant's organization.[16]

In 2007, McKay also played the role of Ciara in P.S. I Love You, a film directed by Richard LaGravenese and starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler. It is based on the novel by Irish writer Cecelia Ahern.

Theatrical role

In 2006, McKay made her Broadway debut as Polly Peachum in the Roundabout Theatre Company's limited-run production of The Threepenny Opera, co-starring with Alan Cumming and Cyndi Lauper. The role earned her a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance.

Debate over McKay's age

McKay's real age has been a matter of some debate.

At the time of Get Away from Me's release, most publicity and Internet sources indicated that she was 19 years of age. As late as 2004 McKay's website reported her age as 19[17], but all references to her age were later removed. Her father has, however, stated that she was actually born on April 13, 1982 [18], which would have made her 21 at the time of the album's early 2004 release. McKay graduated from high school and began college in 2000, coincidental for someone born in 1982 before the November 30 birthday cutoff in New York state.

Additionally, The New Republic reported that McKay's British birth certificate reportedly gives the April 13, 1982 date.[19] An article from the Pocono Record, dated September 14, 1998, gives McKay's age as 16, which is consistent with a 1982 birthdate.[20] Also, the England and Wales 1837-1983 birth index shows that the birth of Nell Marie McKay, born to a mother with the surname Pappas, was registered in the spring of 1982.[21]

Nellie eventually talked about the issue with her age in an interview with Time Out New York saying: "You should always lie during interviews. I don’t know why more people don’t lie about their age, considering what an ageist society we live in. When I told Sony I was about to turn 19, they said, “Oh, we don’t have to tell anyone.” People pay more attention to you when you have a teen attached to your name."[22]

Discography

Albums

Soundtracks

Other songs

  • "John-John"
  • "Teresa"
  • "Take Me Away"
  • "A Christmas Dirge"

References

  1. ^ New York Times, 3 January 2006 Songwriter Says Columbia Dropped Her in Fight Over Album
  2. ^ [1][dead link‍]
  3. ^ Songwriter Says Columbia Dropped Her in Fight Over Album - New York Times
  4. ^ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20061209/ai_n16899558
  5. ^ Arts, Briefly - New York Times
  6. ^ [2][dead link‍]
  7. ^ Nellie McKay ~ View topic - Obligatory Villagers Released
  8. ^ Obligatory Villagers : Nellie McKay : Review : Rolling Stone
  9. ^ Obligatory Villagers
  10. ^ Obligatory Villagers : Nellie McKay : Review : Rolling Stone
  11. ^ Nellie McKay ~ View topic - Obligatory Villagers- Reviews & Discussions
  12. ^ Nellie McKay
  13. ^ Welcome to Brooklyn Philharmonic
  14. ^ The Brooklyn Paper: ‘Four-Scored’: Laurie Anderson joins the Philharmonic at BAM
  15. ^ Nellie McKay ~ View topic - Birchmere 3/27/07
  16. ^ City Pages - Culture To Go - What's In Nellie McKay's Mind
  17. ^ "Biography". nelliemckay.com. 2004-04-15. Retrieved 2006-11-05. Via the Internet Archive.
  18. ^ "Whoa, Nellie! All we want is the truth". Buffalo News. 2004-09-21. Retrieved 2007-03-20.
  19. ^ David Yaffe (2004-09-28). "Independent Label: The Young Singer Who Has Besotted All the Critics". The New Republic. Retrieved 2006-11-05.
  20. ^ Carol Yoka (September 14, 1998). "High school students add some youth to festival". Pocono Record. Retrieved 2006-11-05.
  21. ^ "England and Wales 1837-1983 birth index". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 2006-11-05.
  22. ^ Time Out New York: Mouth wide shut
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