"We're playing a game," says Madisen Ward of Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear, "where everyone goes around and picks a song that they love. Two out of my three have been Tom Waits." Ward is calling the Scene from the road, where he and his mother Ruth (the Mama Bear) have been killing time en route to NOM-COMM, the radio convention in Philadelphia. Ruth's selections? "Old school Jackie Wilson," she says. "And some Neil Young. That's always a go-to for me."
It's not really an uncommon sight for a mother and son to pass the hours of a boring road trip with a few games or maybe some sing-alongs. But here in this car, things are bound to sound a little different — because Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear are more than just blood. They're a duo from Independence, Mo. (just outside Kansas City), whose debut LP, Skeleton Crew, came out this week. It's an album full of stark folk songs built on plenty of those backseat requests — Waits, Wilson, Young — but also on a sort of lost progression of bare-bones basement soul; that hidden corner of American roots music that's not banjo-propelled but is just as true to our musical heritage.
"We don't play no country," says Madisen. "And we don't play no blues. We're trying to keep it very ambiguous. But I do feel we are very Americana."
Don't take that "no country" comment the wrong way.
"We love Nashville," says Ruth. "Country music! Hattie B's! Noshville!" But more than hot chicken, Nashville provided the unique spirit and unstoppable industry infrastructure to vault the duo several rungs up the ladder to success, landing them a record deal, a name producer, a Late Show With David Letterman appearance and bookings the likes of Bonnaroo, where they'll play on the massive Which Stage next month, and the Ryman, where this week they'll open for Swedish folk sensation Kristian Matsson (aka The Tallest Man on Earth). And all this in less than a year, proving that while Music Row can churn out instant country sensations, the same town can give a boost to a band whose sound is anything but status quo.
It may seem like Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear came out of nowhere to the Letterman stage, where they made their television debut in February, performing the Skeleton single "Silent Movies." But Ruth and her son have been making music together for six years, taking their casual kitchen-table and coffeehouse sessions to the next level after requests for original songs kept coming. They were never worried about what people might think of the familial connection — if anything, the only concern was letting go of their identities as solo artists.
"On a performance level, it was one of the easiest things I have ever done," Madisen, 26, says about playing with his 63-year-old mother. "In the beginning there was a moment where not just me, but my mom as well, didn't want to become a duo — I was an individual artist, she was an individual artist, and we wanted to keep it that way and maybe play together once in a while. There was some reluctance there."
Ruth had taken up the guitar in her teenage years with dreams of a career in music, and still gigged around Kansas City after raising Madisen and his two siblings. But it was Nashville, not Missouri, that gave the duo its big break. Alex Collier, keyboardist for local rockers The Weeks, caught wind of the band, and showed a video clip of "Silent Movies" to local entertainment attorney Jeff Colvin. What he heard, he admits, knocked him out of his chair. Colvin urged his wife, Shelly Colvin, a musician herself and head of artist relations for fashion designer Billy Reid, to book them as an opener for Phosphorescent at the annual Billy Reid Shindig in Florence, Ala. It was the duo's first real road gig.
"I felt raw emotion when I first heard Madisen and Ruth sing," Jeff Colvin tells the Scene. "Pure, unadulterated emotion, without pretense or agenda. I think as a society, we're starved for things authentic to connect with, and that's what Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear are doing, really connecting with people."
Collier agrees. "The first time I heard them I was immediately brought back to first hearing music," he says.
Soon, Colvin booked the band an industry showcase at Third Man Records during the Americana Music Festival and helped them score a deal with Glassnote Records (Adele, Phoenix). And soon after that the band began cutting Skeleton Crew in Nashville with Adele producer Jim Abbiss.
"We can't wait to go back," Madisen says of Music City.
And they will, on Wednesday night, when they make their Ryman debut. In the coming months the band will share stages with as varied a list of artists as it comes: The Tallest Man on Earth, Rodrigo y Gabriela, the Pixies. There aren't many artists that can straddle such a wide scope, but Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear sure do — there's a completely guttural rawness to their music that is punk with nary a power chord; a soulful groove without the need for a single saxophone lick.
It's music, as the title of their LP suggests, played by a skeleton crew — onstage, it's just Mama Bear and her son, both on acoustic guitars. Vocal cracks and yelps aren't edited out, but embraced, and Madisen's unpolished bellow never looks for perfectly rounded notes or unfrayed edges. The version of Americana the pair makes is one that's been underserved, until now: that side of American folk informed by soul, blues and even quirky modern acts like Sufjan Stevens. The Wards think it stems from an honesty only a mother and son can touch.
"That's one of the advantages. And the disadvantage is we have to be really honest with one another," Madisen says, laughing.
But just because this is a family affair, don't expect the younger Ward to continue the tradition with any future children. "I'm surprised my mom does it with me," he says. "If [my kids] ever say, 'Are we going to be in a band?' I'll say, 'Can't we play Monopoly?' "
Email music@nashvillescene.com
