Editor’s Note: In May 2013, Boston underwent a music revolution. Award-winning digital arts magazine Vanyaland and game-changing major-league music festival Boston Calling launched within 10 short days of each other, completely altering and elevating the landscape where music and culture intersect in a city that had previously gone relatively stale. In the near-decade since, the two entities have been a defining feature of our city, both for its residents and how it’s perceived everywhere else. In Spring 2022, Vanyaland and Boston Calling team up to showcase the homegrown bands and artists that help shape the most Boston lineup of Boston Calling ever. Boston Calling’s ’22 headliners — Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, The Strokes — and its solid undercard are well-known and established; but over the next few weeks, keep it locked as Vanyaland profiles the homegrown talent that decorates the lineup like never before. Nine years later, Vanyaland and Boston Calling continue to showcase Boston in new ways, and we have the sounds to prove it.
Ali McGuirk
Performing on Saturday, May 28
What can fans expect from your set at Boston Calling?
“Fans can expect us to leave it all on the line. We’ll be playing songs from my coming record and I’ve got a few surprises in the works. There will be dueling guitars, (Jeffrey Lockhart and Imam Hamdani) who are guaranteed face melters. Nicole Nelson (of Dwight & Nicole) will be on bass and vocal harmonies and Brandon Mayes will of course be laying down the groove on drums. With the support of this soul-crushing band, I’m gonna show Boston Calling my whole heart.” — Ali McGuirk
Artist bio:
Blending classic soul power with a folk songwriter lyricism, Ali McGuirk has the rare ability to silence a room with just a few words of a song. With a voice that is raw and sultry and a style rooted in improvisation, her sets are a hypnotic and intimate journey. McGuirk’s debut album, Slow Burn, made rock critic Steve Morse’s “Top Ten albums of 2017” in the Boston Globe and earned her recognition as one of New England’s most compelling artists. Her latest single “That’s the Way I Feel About You” by Bobby Womack is out now on Signature Sounds, to benefit the Sweet Relief Musicians’ Fund. Signature Sounds will release McGuirk’s sophomore album in summer 2022.
What we’ve said: Ali McGuirk on Vanyaland
Follow: @alisingssongs on Instagram
Listen: Ali McGuirk on Spotify
Watch: Ali McGuirk on YouTube
