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Grammy-Winning Musician Madison Cunningham Explores Heartbreak on New Album
15 Oct
Summary
- Cunningham's second album Revealer won a Grammy in 2022
- Cunningham met Prince's former guitarist Wendy Melvoin, who encouraged her to be more expressive
- Cunningham divorced her husband of 5 years and shifted to a piano-based sound inspired by Joni Mitchell
Over the past few years, California-based singer and multi-instrumentalist Madison Cunningham has established herself as an industry darling for her virtuosic guitar playing. In 2022, her second studio album Revealer, made with a team of industry veterans, won a Grammy.
Shortly after Revealer's success, Cunningham met Prince's former guitarist Wendy Melvoin, who told her "You have something to say, and you aren't saying it yet." Melvoin then played Cunningham the confrontational classic "Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole" by Martha Wainwright. Months later, Cunningham divorced her husband of five years, whom she had known since they were teens in church, and ditched her guitar for a piano-based album indebted to Joni Mitchell's Blue.
Cunningham's new album, Ace, features lush orchestral arrangements that often approach Joanna Newsom territory, a new direction for the musician. While quieter and less accessible than her past work, Ace is just as musically sophisticated, with newfound chamber-pop grandeur as it explores the disintegration of a seemingly perfect relationship.
