Madison Cunningham has always been an artist associated with precision. As a guitarist praised by John Mayer and Hozier alike, she’s built a reputation as a musician’s musician. It’s not only her guitar playing that’s earned her accolades amongst her peers. It’s her tone, phrasing, and compositional instincts. But with Ace, her third studio album, Cunningham insists that virtuosity is only half the story. This time, the record belongs entirely to her.
“It’s the first time I’ve really known heartbreak for myself instead of observing it in others,” she shared. “I didn’t know if I even had language for it at first. Then, when the song came, they all came in two months,” she told Juice Box Press and 1824.
That pace is woven through Ace, a project Cunningham describes as a document of anger, loss, and ownership. Where her past work told stories through metaphor and hidden meanings, these new songs face these topics head-on.
The album’s lead single, “My Full Name” was a deliberate left turn, spotlighting piano rather than guitar. “I loved coming out of the gate with something different,” she said. “It felt like I was establishing my melodic imprint rather than just my sonic one. And I really felt like there was some ownership in that. And also just in the subject matter of the song. It’s very forward.”
It’s raw. It’s vulnerable. It’s “hard on a platter” in her words. Which is exactly why she chose it as the opening statement for this new era.
Collaborating with Fleet Foxes
Cunningham is no stranger to collaboration, having previously worked with Mumford & Sons, Jacob Collier, and Andrew Bird (the latter of which she released a full collaborative album with). So it’s no surprise this newest album brings more of her fellow musicians into the Cunningham musical universe. For her second single, “Wake,” Cunningham tapped Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold for what she hoped would lead to more of a dialogue than a standard collaboration. “I’d met Robin years ago and felt a kindred spirit. When I wrote ‘Wake,’ I heard it as a duet. I didn’t want it to feel like I was singing at someone. I wanted it to be a two-way exchange.” Pecknold’s voice proved to be the perfect choice. “He just knew how to sound like the counterpart,” Cunningham said. “I felt very taken care of in that collaboration. He could have walked in with an ego, but he didn’t. He was all in for the song.”
Tone and Storytelling
Across the record, Cunningham leans heavily on the idea that tone itself is storytelling. “Tone is everything. I think that’s why I refuse to text people now. I just want to get on the phone like I think it communicates sometimes more than the words we use. It’s our most powerful language. I feel like that is obviously a direct correlation to music as well. Like, you know, you can play 1000 notes and without a good tone, I don’t think it reaches.”
That pursuit led her to even re-record entire tracks. “Beyond That Moon” was cut twice before she found the right “heart” in the performance. Meanwhile, “Break the Jaw” captures a tone that she calls the angriest she’s ever been on a record. “I love singing it,” she laughs. “I’m always angry about something.” For Cunningham, anger became the key that unlocked Ace. After a period of numbness that left her not wanting to write, she realized that embracing anger and rage gave her music form. “Shame was this blob, liquid,” she said. “Anger calcified it and gave it structure. It’s a beautiful illuminator.”
Owning the Entire Process
Part of what makes Ace hers, she says, is the deep level of control she claimed over the project. For the first time, Cunningham co-produced a full project, hand-picking her longtime touring band as collaborators and staying involved in every decision on the album. “My sleeves were rolled up the whole time,” she said. “I knew what every word meant, and I wasn’t afraid of clarity.”
Even the album artwork carries her fingerprints. Drawn from a mood board of birds and swans, the cover shot shows Cunningham in an ambiguous pose. “It felt like a mood ring. Whatever song you’re listening to, it mirrors that emotion.”
Shattering illusions
Her Grammy win for “Revealer” in 2023 placed Cunningham firmly in the spotlight. But she doesn’t see Ace as an attempt to top that success. In fact, the accolade made her question the entire system. “It shattered my illusion of the whole thing. It took away its power, once I saw it up close. I’d never considered myself to be someone who could have won something like that, and I’m really thankful that that was my experience, because I’ve not found it to be paralyzing. I found it to be liberating.”
And for Cunningham, that’s the barometer of success. Not perfection, but vitality. “Someone asked me the other day ‘How do you know if a song is finished?’ And I feel like I finally have the answer to that. I never know that it’s finished. I just know if it’s alive or not.” For Cunningham, that’s the whole point of Ace. Songs that breathe, bleed, and keep moving. She doesn’t want them polished into still life. She wants them alive.
Featured Photo Credit: Sean Stout