Exploring life, love, and ambition by poetry in movement, singer/songwriter Madison Hughes’ debut album ‘All That I Am’ is a musical {photograph} of all that she is on this second.
‘All That I Am’ – Madison Hughes
You wouldn’t be unsuitable if you first hear Madison Hughes to suppose you’re listening to Lee Ann Womack.
Their vocals sensibilities are hand in glove. Understated, light, restrained but you’ll be able to hear an anger simmering beneath the floor. Like Womack earlier than her, it’s what Hughes’ doesn’t say that sticks to you. There’s a literary aspect to Hughes’ songwriting. Her songs may simply be brief tales. Every character in every tune has their very own journey, which I wish to suppose continues lengthy after the observe fades out.
Hughes doesn’t sound like a brand new artist. Her music and voice feels prefer it’s been residing in your audio system for a very long time. It feels settled, worn in, like a very good guide you haven’t learn for years however you keep in mind the texture of the pages.
Her debut album, All That I Am (launched April 11) is co-produced by Hughes, Lera Lynn (True Detective, Roseanne Money, Misty Boyce) and Todd Lombardo (Kacey Musgraves, Put up Malone, Ella Langley).
You could know Hughes from The Voice and performing rock & roll hits to viral covers of modern-day nation singles. Raised in Jacksonville, Florida, Hughes grew up attending her mom’s native music pageant, the place she performed a few of her first exhibits as a young person. On the invoice have been acts like Shovels & Rope, Drew Holcomb, and Lera Lynn. Hughes truly reconnected with Lynn in Nashville, who agreed to co-produce Hughes’ full-length debut album. Hughes later studied digital movie manufacturing in school earlier than transferring to Nashville in her twenties.
“I acquired my begin in music in a really DIY approach – making songs on my laptop and self-producing in my very own little world,” Hughes tells Atwood Journal. “This was additionally the primary time I labored with producers, and I liked the collaborative expertise—they actually introduced out the perfect in me.”
Hughes attracts on southern Gothic Nation, which reminds one in every of Lindi Ortega and Lynn herself. The album sits firmly within the Americana custom, however don’t let that deceive you into considering the file is style particular. All That I Am could be very a lot an ever evolving file as you return and maintain hitting play. The thread that runs by the ten tracks is a push and pull. It’s not at all times pressure or a ache; it’s additionally a dance between two folks or two emotions.
All That I Am opens with the title observe, co-written with Hughes, Lynn and Lombardo. It begins as a haunting Appalachian melody, accompanied by Hughes’ understated vocals. The tune then switches up within the refrain and turns into a hovering and stomping pop tune. The tune is a push and pull, not solely within the storytelling, but in addition within the music itself.
He lives for the night time
And I’m the solar
I wanna shine my love gentle on him
However he’s at all times on the run
Oh you recognize there’s something about
the way in which that he turns away makes my fireplace burn
All that I’m gonna take all that I acquired to stroll away
From the again of his lovely head
His hair waving goodbye makes me keep
– “All That I Am,” Madison Hughes
“All That I Am” additionally occurs to be Hughes’ favorite from the album.
“It’s my favourite tune on the file,” She shares. “‘All That I Am’ is a real story about how my anxious attachment model affected my relationships – the push and pull of wanting one thing actual however struggling to stroll away from somebody emotionally unavailable.”
“No one Is aware of Your Love” is a duet between Hughes and Brent Cobb. It’s a meandering, dreamy love tune. Hughes and Cobb’s voices weave out and in of one another, when one goes in a single course, the opposite isn’t far behind it, pulling it in shut after which pushing it away. Their voices dance round one another.
Every time I lose sight of you
It doesn’t matter what the miles
I’ll at all times hear the music
that my thoughts makes if you smile
Trigger you might be my sunshine, my pink wine,
My midnight storm
And what I’m livin for
Duets are simple and exhausting abruptly. Simple, as a result of anybody can sing collectively, even when they’re miles aside expertise could make them appear as if their in the identical vocal sales space. Onerous, as a result of not all duets are equal. Not all duets do what Hughes and Cobb do. Listening to the phrases and their voices bleeding collectively, you imagine the tune, you imagine the sensation, you imagine the characters, one thing that’s uncommon to perform.
“This album felt like my very own model of grad college, a deep dive into creating not simply songs, however an entire world that felt cohesive,” says Hughes. “Ten tracks may appear to be a breeze, however crafting one thing that actually seems like one physique of labor took quite a lot of work.”
Within the penultimate tracks “So Shut To Endlessly,” Hughes is left grappling with the tip of a relationship and attempting to grasp how, peeling again every reminiscence to try to make it make sense.
You have been the sand and I used to be the ocean washing the shore
So I can’t perceive how we can’t be anymore
A easy strummed acoustic guitar begins “Ready On You.” Hughes vocals delicate and understated sings of the individual she is and the individual she is changing into, “My standpoint is fading, Gettin smaller in mirror, The additional that I am going, I’m chasing one thing I can hear it, What it seems to be like I could by no means know.” The tune then opens up, with the refrain rolling out like a panorama unfolding in entrance of you.
Wild is the wanderer
Wandering on her personal
I don’t need to be ready round
Ready for the appropriate phrases
For the appropriate sound
Perhaps it’s inexperienced i left you blue
However I can’t maintain ready ready on you
These remaining tracks are concerning the finish. The tip of a love, the breaking of a promise, or the tip of a approach of being? Hughes’ writing is evident in some respects however she leaves sufficient of the main points as much as your creativeness.
She explains, “This course of (of creating the file) all started proper after The Voice, in January 2023, and I had little or no songwriting expertise. I wrote with as many individuals as I may and the themes all naturally wove collectively – primarily reflecting my courting life on the time. I grew up listening and watching Lera Lynn’s journey since I used to be 14, so that is the best full circle second for me to have her produce and write songs for this file together with her husband Todd (Lombardo).”
All That I Am closes with “Gypsy Wings,” an ode to Hughes herself. The tune is about embracing herself as a inventive. Within the opening verse, Hughes tells us, “If you happen to acquired a hearth that’s burning, This city will solely kill that flame, Take heed to the freeway callin’, in the event you hear it name your identify,” phrases of knowledge maybe Hughes needs she had been given, or her personal knowledge she nonetheless leans on. The difficulty with being a inventive is self-doubt walks its muddy footprints throughout you after everybody else has taken a bit out of you.
Roll like a river
Experience on the wind
Chase that capturing star thus far
That you just’ll by no means come again once more
Set your sights on the heavens
And sing the tune you sing
Say goodbye, discover the sky
Unfold these gypsy wings
Let em fly, fly away
Hughes admitted to having little or no songwriting expertise, however as was mentioned at the start, Madison Hughes doesn’t sound like a brand new artist; she sounds established, assured, as if her music has been sitting in your vinyl shelf for years.
This file is a musical {photograph} of all that Madison Hughes is on this second.
“It’s necessary to discover ways to belief your self, and that’s the place this album got here from,” she smiles. “It got here from me. I’m so glad I didn’t attempt to be like another person, as a result of that wouldn’t be sincere. I can solely be all that I’m.”
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© Libby Danforth
All That I Am
an album by Madison Hughes
