Massachusetts is an ostensibly real place. But Massachusetts is also a symbolic name for the emotional geography of Lori McKenna's songs.
There are strong resemblances between Lori McKenna's Massachusetts and the real thing. Both are infused with history, where every turn takes you down some road with a tale to tell, maybe a story of your own or of the ones who came before, with hopes and dreams and loves and losses just like yours. They are places of extremes, where love can be a perfect summer day or a bleak November sky, and life can be as wistful as the dead of winter reminiscing of a greener spring.