Mckenna Blake performing at The End in Nashville, TN on February 14, 2025.
Photos and words by Zoey Bright
Mckenna Blake is a 19-year-old singer/songwriter from State College, PA. However, she permanently moved to Nashville in 2024 to pursue a music career and study at Belmont. Over the past year, she has played multiple acoustic shows in Nashville including a Writer’s Showcase at Belmont University. Finally, on Valentines Day, Mckenna had the opportunity to play her first official show with a band at The End in Nashville. She was support for an event headlined by Cameron Oles called Love at The End, and I guarantee a large portion of the crowd left with a new favorite artist. Mckenna and her band played a variety of original music alongside band members Dylan Duffy on drums, Clay Bradford on bass, Carter Guse on electric guitar, and Ella Buettner on keyboard.
Alongside signing, Mckenna also played acoustic guitar. She opened the show with her song “Feeling,” a beautiful song that touches on the topic of anxiety and worries when getting into a new relationship. She then moved onto “Scars,” an amazingly written song that showcases her powerful vocals. During this song, you could tell that the crowd was fully immersed in her performance. You could feel the emotion in her voice, which only got stronger throughout the show. After playing “Scars,” Mckenna played Backseat, another emotional song that she co-wrote with her friend Charlotte Willis.
Roughly halfway through her set, Mckenna switched to playing two of her original songs “Bury You” and “The Last Line” acoustically. “Bury You” was played on guitar, and then she switched over to the keyboard to play “The Last Line,” which was written only a few days prior to the show. Despite it just being written, the lyrics were very captivating. Although the past two songs she played were acoustic, Mckenna kept the crowd engaged with her amazing vocals and insanely good songwriting skills.
To close out her remarkable set, Mckenna called her band back up on stage and they played two more songs together. The first song she played was “Wishing Well.” This song is about wishing for the same things that everyone wishes for and hoping that someone would be there to listen to her. She ended her set with “On My Mind” and announced that it will be released as her first single on February 28th!
Be sure to keep an eye out for more shows! It was an unforgettable night, and if you have the chance to see her, I highly recommend it. Her next show is a Writer’s Round with Nashville Tour Stop at Bassline Brewery!
Find Mckenna Blake here!
Follow her on Instagram here!
Keep up with Mylifeinsound:
