photo credit: Claire Marie Vogel
COVERS EP WEDNESDAY OUT NOW
ON VERVE FORECAST
GRAMMY-nominated singer-songwriter and guitarist Madison Cunningham debuts new song, “Broken Harvest,” as part of NPR Morning Edition’s “Song Project”; listen to the full interview HERE and song HERE.
“I had worried for a moment that a song based on 2020 could be a directionless one to write. A year that left us all like a headless herd of chickens running around a farm yard,” Cunningham explains, “…it was easy to think it was only happening to you. To anyone with a dream, the feeling of being robbed of opportunity, growth, promise, or success, was incredibly abrasive.”
She goes on to describe, “It wasn’t until after we lost my Grandma to a stroke back in August that I realized… we’ve always been faced with this. Loss is in the cards for us humans… Without sounding too casual about what this year stole from us, (some replaceable, some not), this gave me a shot of optimism. Not because there’s light at the end of the tunnel, or because somehow all that we lost has been reconciled, but because maybe, just maybe, we’re born with the strength to deal with it.
”Cunningham’s latest EP, Wednesday, is out now via Verve Forecast. Listen/stream HERE. The EP features covers of songs by Radiohead, John Mayer, Tom Waits and The Beatles, and follows her critically acclaimed debut LP, Who Are You Now, which was nominated for Best Americana Album at the 2020 Grammy Awards. She will be opening for Harry Styles at Madison Square Garden for his rescheduled shows this October 2021.
The Orange County, CA native has performed as a duet partner with Punch Brothers’ Chris Thile on APM’s “Live From Here,” and recently appeared in and helped score Sara Bareilles’ show Little Voice. Her list of champions continues to grow, including Harry Styles, John Mayer, Andrew Bird, Sara Watkins, Nickel Creek, the Milk Carton Kids’ Joey Ryan and Sara Bareilles.
Cunningham first picked up a guitar at age seven, and by age twelve was singing and performing alongside her five siblings in church. By the age of fifteen, Cunningham realized songwriting was a passion she wanted to pursue, citing Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan as key inspirations. “It’d always been a hobby before, but around then, I realized I wanted to make it a religious practice,” she says. “I thought if I could capture some of their same spirit ever in my life, I’d have to work hard and every day.”