How Madison Cunningham went from heartbreak to writer’s block to ‘Ace’
Even if you aren’t a songwriter, you’ve probably experienced writer’s block, or a creative block of some kind. It’s that feeling where the blank page is just staring back at you, and nothing is coming out of you.
That’s where Madison Cunningham was before making her new album, Ace, but she kept a positive mindset.
“At some point, it will end,” she says. “It’s usually cracked open by a pretty bad song or two.”
Stylistically, Ace is a sharp departure from her guitar-forward 2022 album, Revealer. The songs sound delicate, but they’re powerful stories about falling in and out of love.
In today’s session, Cunningham talks about getting through that writer’s block, taking big emotional swings and how pivoting to the piano helped her work through her heartbreak.
This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.
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