To hear Stella Lefty tell it, she never wanted to be a star. The 23-year-old Chicagoan and daughter of billionaire Groupon co-founder Eric Lefkofsky grew up playing guitar and loving Taylor Swift, whose charming if parroted twang she adopted. Lefty used to think all artists had to make their own music, but when she discovered the concept of songwriting, she knew she’d found a dream. Fresh out of college, she headed to Nashville to join in some sessions. The gig fell through after her boss insisted she take the stage herself, which she found “so annoying.” Why couldn’t she just stay behind the scenes, focused on those good old three chords and the truth?
If this spiel sounds like, well, a spiel, consider the scrutiny Lefty has faced following the runaway viral success of her inoffensive pop-country hit “Boston,” which I’ve taken to calling “Stock Season.” The chorus, a crib of Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season” so blatant his team came calling for a songwriting credit, finds Lefty traveling to Beantown with a new beau; she’s usually not into the whole love thing, but she likes it that he’s nice. The verse, a crib of Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” blatant enough I’m surprised she hasn’t asked for one, adds a pedal-steel lick and no fresh perspective, stacking cliches into portmanteaus in a manner that recalls the worst impulses of fellow silver-spooned Swiftie Gracie Abrams.
There’s nothing that stands out about this song besides the fact that it sounds like other songs you probably like. Sometimes, that’s fine; the best country music finds inspiration in the chicken-fried familiar. But the great trick of “Boston” is that it cements Lefty in the exact echelon of society she seems to truly yearn to belong: middle America. Christened successfully among the average, Lefty can now honestly say she’s different from the myriad other children of fortune who become musicians. She really is no better than the rest of us.
