Check Out Maddison McKinley’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maddison McKinley.

Hi Maddison, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My story doesn’t begin in a studio or on a stage. It starts in the back of my mom’s suburban, somewhere between Dallas and Glen Rose, Texas. Jewel, Faith Hill, or Melissa Etheridge were playing through the speakers (the soundtrack varied based on how her work week went). I was in the back, legs stuck to the leather, trying my best to exactly match their tone, pitch, and ability to hold out notes (Céline takes the cake on that one).

I’m a seventh-generation Texan, but think less rodeo queen and more Neiman Marcus with a teased blowout. I grew up in Dallas, where your value was measured by your dress label and whether your shoes matched your handbag. But it was the wild weekends spent on the ranch that kept me grounded: dirt and sunscreen on my legs, wildflower bouquets on the kitchen window seal, spaghetti-strap tanks, sweaty afternoons on the trampoline with my brothers. My love for fashion was born in that divide between the city polish and country dust.

My mom loved fashion like her Dallasite-counterparts, but didn’t believe in swiping full price, so we spent weekends digging through thrift stores for silks, sequins, and the occasional Victor Costa. These days, I often joke on stage that I’m ninety percent fashion and ten percent music. It’s not just a bit, that’s really how I feel. The stage deserves a certain kind of reverence and even if I fall short musically, I know I’ve honored it through what I’m wearing.

For years, I kept the music to myself. But the songs I write today lean heavily on my upbringing.

In 2021, I walked into a saloon in Colorado and met a man who I’d soon call my husband. If it weren’t for him, I likely wouldn’t have made it through Nashville (where I ended up meeting a fantastic producer, Caleb Sherman), and I also wouldn’t have been inspired enough to write my first 6 track EP, Cowgirl Serenade.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Our wedding was planned for the summer of 2024. It was going to be a beautiful garden party on my family’s ranch. Then he cheated on me.

He confessed to the infidelity twelve hours before the closing of our new home. I tried to back out of the sale, but the sellers wouldn’t budge, so I had to buy the house on my own, and he got to walk away scot-free. Admittedly, it still makes me mad, but the anger now feels more like hot coals on a campfire in the early morning sunrise as opposed to the evening bonfire.

I’ve spent the past year recovering and writing songs for women who’ve been through the wringer like me. Some audience members have hysterically remarked that I’m in my “scorned woman” era. They’re not wrong.

But we creatives don’t stay in one place for long. I’ve written plenty of songs about how brutal the year has been (cheaper than therapy), but lately I’ve started shifting into other stories. Right now, I’m working on one about a made-up vaquero from Texas named Pablo El Pobrecito. It feels good to write something light-hearted, fictional, and entirely not about me.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a singer-songwriter and a performer, but I think what I really do is build a feeling. People have told me that my songs feel cinematic, like they belong in a film. That’s the highest compliment I could imagine, aside from the one person who once said I reminded them of Bonnie Raitt. I still can’t believe that.

I’m drawn to small, specific moments and I try to let the emotion come through the lyrics without forcing it.

The thing I’m most proud of is that I perform at all. At 30, I picked up a guitar for the first time. And just a few months later, I performed in front of a sold-out open mic at Fox & Locke in Leiper’s Fork. I was shaking the entire time, but I did it. Since then, I’ve been performing regularly in Nashville and across the country.

Just getting on stage still feels like a small miracle.

What matters most to you? Why?
Entertaining a crowd. The D.A.R.E. program worked on me, so I can’t speak to actual drugs, but I imagine an engaged audience has to be one of the best highs out there.

Getting someone’s attention is the greatest feeling out there. It’s partially why I prefer singing to a packed bar (where you have to earn the attention) as opposed to a listening room. I don’t mind the clatter of silverware, the half-drunk conversations, or the guy in the back who didn’t know there would be live music tonight. If something I sing cuts through all that, if someone mid-laugh turns their head and really listens, that’s when I know the song is doing its job. That kind of reaction tells me more than any applause ever could.

At the same time, I care deeply about the songwriting. It’s important to me that the song feels true down to my bones. Even if the room doesn’t love it, or the delivery isn’t perfect, I can walk away knowing I told the story the best way I knew how.

Pricing:

• No pricing, but I am going to start doing house shows in 2025 and would love for people to reach out to book one, across the country! https://www.maddisonmckinley.com/book-a-house-show

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.maddisonmckinley.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maddisonmckinleymusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maddisonmckinleymusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@maddisonmckinleymusic
• Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/maddison-mckinley/1639351708
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1BdciHk8DnOJgiAttZ7AQE