Nellie McKay Profile (the Uncorked Edition)

It's a Long way to the Top: A Profile of Nellie McKay

Singer/ songwriter Nellie Mckay's history is nearly as eclectic as the music she's become known for composing. Mckay was originally born in London, England in 1984 to a director father and an thespian mother (making a career in entertainment a no-brainer for the artist). At the age of two, McKay and her mother moved to New York City where they would live for about 10 years. In 1994 though, the two would move to the Pocono mountains in Pennsylvania- a more than adequate place for any teenage girl to play out her high school days. When it became time for Nellie to move onto college, she decided on the Manhattan School of Music, putting our heroin back in the fine state of New York. So, being a singer/ songwriter, McKay must've blazed through music school with floating notes and flying colors, right? Well, not exactly...

After two years in the Manhattan School of music, McKay began to feel disjointed and isolated. "I wandered the dorms only at night, to put up fliers for my shows," said McKay in her official online biography. "I was either locked in my room, not answering when people knocked, or in Greenwich Village playing [music] and meeting drunks and loners of all descriptions." According to her biography, McKay had never been a decent student and her college years weren't serving her any better. By the spring semester of 2002, Nellie had officially dropped out of the Manhattan School of Music in pursuit of a new existence. Finding that existence though, would serve as her toughest assignment yet.

Shortly after dropping out, Nellie began performing stand up comedy in a number of New York nightclubs. Along with this, she was playing piano in nearly eight gigs a week. Although she was getting plently of work, McKay's sly and non conformist sensibility continued to get the best of her; most notably when getting canned from New York's Mozart Cafe. "I liked to play Christmas songs in August because people would smile and it was the best time to play them 'cause people weren't sick of them," Mckay said. "I got fired for that."



Luckily though, things would soon begin to look up. In 2002 Nellie took the Best in Show award at the Mountain Valley Arts Festival in Guntersville Alabama. McKay took home the prize for the tune "Won't U Please B Nice"; one of her first attempts at songwriting. Receiving such an award proved to be a landmark event for the artist, proving that her own creative products may be well accepted by the public. Soon afterwards, Nellie returned to New York where she would frequently unveil more and more new songs at the local clubs and cafes- mostly to stellar audience approval. Her creative fruits were beginning to ripen, yet McKay's greatest opportunity was yet to come.

In February 2003, Nellie served as the opening act for the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow band at Tonic, a popular lounge in New York's lower East Side. As luck would have it, Tom Ruttenburg, a writer from Time Out New York magazine, was in attendance. Impressed by McKay's performance, Ruttenburg published a very enthusiastic article about the young artist. No less than 48 hours later, two record companies would begin a bidding war over the rights to publish Nellie's music, with Columbia records being the eventual victor.

In the summer of 2003, McKay began recording on her very first record, working with sound engineering legend Geoff Emerick (revered for his extensive work with the Beatles). Next winter, Nellie's first album, entitled Get Away From me, was released to enthusiastic reviews. "McKay's penchant for offhand satire and warped musical-comedy allusions aligns her more closely to skewed songsmiths such as Randy Newman and Van Dyke Parks," Rolling Stone magazine declared in their album review. "And she's only nineteen!" The album has since sold more than 120,000 copies and caused an interest in McKay that was certainly hard earned (it even earned her an opening spot in numerous Sting performances). A follow up album entitled Pretty Little Head is currently being wrapped up, as a release date has yet to be announced.

Aside from creating well received music, McKay is an artist that strives to use her fame to fuel her political and social ambitions. An open feminist and PETA representative, McKay has made open statements on many political issues, concerning everything from animal cruelty to inner city gang violence. "Being politically active - a real impact, even a small one, is more important than the fleeting ego gratification of commercial success," McKay said in a Washington Post interview. Nellie is clearly an artist that aims to create an influence not only in the music world, but also in the the vast haven of social and political relations.

As she continues to compose music and perform around the nation, Nellie McKay is an individual that can serve as an inspiration to all of us. Knowing where she came from and the adversity she faced, perhaps we can gain a better perspective on our own struggles. If for nothing else, Nellie McKay, through her music and sensibility, can help us to relax and enjoy our lives just a little bit more.

"My career is my party," McKay said. "It's fun, and everybody's invited."