Nellie McKay's 2004 debut album, Get Away From Me, was released as a double-disc record.
The album landed on Columbia Records in 2004 as a double-album debut, according to Pollstar. Its double-disc format stood out in the pop landscape of the moment. The title itself was a jab at the pop landscape of the moment: McKay chose Get Away From Me as a sarcastic response to Norah Jones's multi-platinum 2002 debut Come Away With Me, according to Encyclopedia.com.
The record had high-profile backing. Geoff Emerick produced her studio debut, according to AllMusic. His production and engineering lent serious industry weight to a then-unknown singer-songwriter. Rolling Stone rated the finished album four stars, and Get Away From Me went on to land on the Billboard Top 200 and earn McKay her national television debut on The Late Show with David Letterman, per St. Louis Magazine's account of her career.
A Genre-Blurring Debut That Still Resonates
Those early demos are getting a second life. Omnivore Recordings released Gee Whiz: The Get Away From Me Demos in 2025 as a 2-LP set, CD, and digital release, featuring 18 demos corresponding to the original album and three additional early, previously unissued tracks performed and produced entirely by McKay, mastered by Michael Graves, according to Omnivore Recordings. The collection captures the demos made before the album, offering a glimpse of the songs in an earlier form.
Musically, McKay's catalog ranges from jazz to pop and styles that resist easy categorization, blending satire with sincerity across an eclectic run of critically acclaimed albums, per St. Louis Magazine. PopMatters has written that the anguish running through Get Away From Me remains relevant two decades later, while Audiophix has described McKay as more astute than many scholars writing at the time. Salon named the album one of the great pop albums of the early 21st century, according to St. Louis Magazine's reporting.
From Major-Label Fallout to Full Creative Control
McKay's insistence on artistic independence came to a head near the end of 2005, when Sony dropped her in January 2006 after seeking a 16-track single-CD version of her 23-track follow-up, Pretty Little Head. Rather than compress the project, she released the full double CD independently on her own Hungry Mouse label in October 2006, according to PopMatters. The move established a pattern that has defined much of her career since: prioritizing the shape of the work over the convenience of a label.
She has also released Hey Guys, Watch This. Beyond music, McKay has built musical biographies of Barbara Graham, Rachel Carson, Joan Rivers, and Billy Tipton.
Stage, Screen, and Advocacy Beyond the Record
McKay's theatrical resume runs deep. She made her Broadway debut in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of The Threepenny Opera. That performance earned her a Theatre World Award, per The Kennedy Center. She has acted in P.S. I Love You and Downtown Express, while her music has turned up on film and TV soundtracks.
In 2009, Verve Records released her fourth studio album, Normal As Blueberry Pie: A Tribute to Doris Day, a collection of 12 songs handpicked from Doris Day recordings plus one original by McKay, according to The Kennedy Center. McKay's network television debut came on The Late Show with David Letterman, and her outspoken streak extends to her politics, per St. Louis Magazine.
Animal rights advocacy runs alongside her creative work. McKay has supported PETA, per St. Louis Magazine.
