Madison Cunningham on the Ace Tour, Superstition, and Playing More Piano

The Ace album cover, photo by Sean Stout.

Madison Cunningham’s fourth studio album, Ace, signals many changes in Cunningham’s musical style. She shifts into the piano realm after years of focusing on her guitar work, and has the ultimate processing experience following a massive period of suffering intense loss and self-discovery. 

As I talk to Cunningham on the phone while she drives through California a week ahead of the opening night of the second US leg of her Ace Tour, she offers advice to anyone healing, “The only way to stay malleable and to continue to grow into a person that you like, is to not be like, ‘I'm never gonna feel heartbreak again. I refuse to.’… It's to continually be willing to open yourself up as a wound.” As she sings in the Ace track “Skeletree”, “The mind intuits every line you will one day cross”, she knew in her gut that such a realization would come from writing this record.

While she is uncertain whether the highs of the perspective shifts she felt while making the album could ever occur again, it doesn’t sound like she’s completely come off the high of the creation process. 

When describing the tour, she marvels over playing Hague, Zurich and Scotland, calling the experiences magical and life-affirming, “More revelations have started to happen.” She feels a sense of freedom, even if it can be hard to maintain emotional energy when so closely surrounded by people. She describes her team positively, “We got into really good rituals [and] did a lot of reading and listening to podcasts and laughing together.” Nonetheless, “You can't fully relax, even in your relaxed moments, because… you're getting ready to be in front of a lot of people every night.” Going on runs and walks helps her escape from the sense of pressure she feels. It’s worth it, though, “The moments where you're able to see the whole thing from an aerial view [and have] an out of body experience [are the highs.]” The best descriptor she gives for those interested in the life of a showgirl is, “It's normal life, just in the sky… you don't escape anything.”

Madison Cunningham performing on the Ace Tour in Manchester, photo by Ailish O'Leary Austin.

Anticipating her upcoming shows in Nashville, famously known as “Music City”, she describes her appreciation for the city, “The first time I was there, I got to play at the Ryman, which was crazy.” She loves the grounded-ness of the artist community, “It seems like everybody is kind of in each other's corner.”

I ask her, curiously, if she’s superstitious. Of course, if her intuition foresaw this climactic period of her career, it’s something she pays attention to. The symbolism of the title “Ace” must signify something deeper in Cunningham’s perception of the world than simply low lows and high highs. She doesn’t seem excited about her own answer, which makes me laugh, “[I’m] a little bit [superstitious], I hate to say it.” She cites pickiness about things like microphone volume levels in relation to bad angel numbers, and even how this has applied to tour, “Me and Jesse [Chandler, multi-instrumentalist accompanist,] feel like the one really rough show we had, we didn't do our little preshow handshake [before], and so now… we do nothing without it.” On the flip side, she loves the number eleven and makes a wish on behalf of loved ones anytime she sees the clock hit 11:11.

Madison Cunningham, photo by Sean Stout

But, let’s talk about music. Cunningham is well-known for her work with Lucy Dacus, Jacob Collier, Remi Wolf, and even for having opening slots with Harry Styles and John Mayer. Mayer notably called her a “monster guitar player” in a “standalone appreciation post of @madicunningham” following the end of their shows together. Her second studio album, Revealer (2022) won her the Grammy for Best Folk Album in 2023. All of the work she’s done has revolved around her guitar-playing skills, but she wanted to delve deeper into piano with Ace. She describes her relationship with the instrument, “I love piano. It's always been a part of the story for me, just not [something] that I've really recorded a whole lot on.” She plans to expand further upon this in the future. She faces a little uncertainty, “I've [wondered] if people are bummed to see me play piano as opposed to guitar. But I also don't care.”

I note, as we talk, that her lyricism is impeccable. One line stops me dead in my tracks: “Have you ever kissed a pain so real?” She laughs in surprise, “I don't feel good with words in real life. [Maybe that explains] my extra obsession with lyrics when I'm in private, because I love them so much, and I'm always trying to glean something new about how to communicate.” She describes her lyrical style as more spiritual than literal. She cites inspirations as Joni Mitchell, Fiona Apple, and Ruth Parker’s Otherwise Occupied album, among others. She speaks of how her lyricism has developed with her instrumental occupation, “My lyricism had to work a little bit harder and go a little deeper when I was playing [and] writing [with] piano.” She would “road-test” songs by playing them on both guitar and piano to figure out where they were emotionally, which involved experimentation on all fronts.

As she continues tour in Nashville, attendees will notice an update to the stage: a piano! Tickets to the US leg of the Ace Tour are available here, and you can listen to Ace on all streaming platforms now.