Madison Cunningham review – complex new tunes from a folk singer with a knack for a twist
Pavilion, GlasgowThe Los Angeles musician is developing a heavier, rockier sound than before, but her astonishing voice and intuitive melodies are as strong as ever Sat with her back to the audience, Madison Cunningham is performing an eerie, unreleased ballad, her white dress mirrored in a glossy black upright piano. The theatre is pin-drop silent as the California singer-songwriter’s astonishing voice, classic and characterful, pours into a heavily reverbed microphone.“That was a funny way to say hello,” she grins afterwards. The “pitch” for this one-off show, part of Celtic Connections festival, she tells us, is that it will comprise almost entirely new songs, from a record not yet announced. It’s a bold gambit – usually fans come to hear the songs they know – but Cunningham has a winning confidence in her rich, complex new material, and how it develops her sound. One song, with a restless piano melody that echoes Joni Mitchell, slips organically into a verse from Cunningham’s Grammy-winning folk album Revealer, the lyrics altered to address the wildfires in her home town: “You’re all I’ve ever known, Los Angeles,” she mourns. Continue reading...
Pavilion, Glasgow
The Los Angeles musician is developing a heavier, rockier sound than before, but her astonishing voice and intuitive melodies are as strong as ever
Sat with her back to the audience, Madison Cunningham is performing an eerie, unreleased ballad, her white dress mirrored in a glossy black upright piano. The theatre is pin-drop silent as the California singer-songwriter’s astonishing voice, classic and characterful, pours into a heavily reverbed microphone.
“That was a funny way to say hello,” she grins afterwards. The “pitch” for this one-off show, part of Celtic Connections festival, she tells us, is that it will comprise almost entirely new songs, from a record not yet announced. It’s a bold gambit – usually fans come to hear the songs they know – but Cunningham has a winning confidence in her rich, complex new material, and how it develops her sound. One song, with a restless piano melody that echoes Joni Mitchell, slips organically into a verse from Cunningham’s Grammy-winning folk album Revealer, the lyrics altered to address the wildfires in her home town: “You’re all I’ve ever known, Los Angeles,” she mourns. Continue reading...
