Just two short years ago, Maggie Rose was gaining traction in mainstream country radio as an independent artist. Then she reached for the bro-country brass ring.
She first found success under her birth name, Margaret Rose Durante, shortly after moving to Nashville in 2008, when she covered Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody" in 2009. Two years later, she became the first independent artist to notch the top slot in Great American Country's Top 20 Countdown with the video to the title cut to her EP Maybe Tonight. Later that same year, Disney incorporated two of her songs into the TV shows Shake It Up and Good Luck Charlie. She soon rebranded herself using her nickname, Maggie Rose, and appeared as a Marilyn-esque bombshell in the video for "I Ain't Your Mama," driving the first single from Cut to Impress, her debut album, to a respectable No. 29 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart.
But then she made a career-changing miscalculation when she released the song "The Girl in Your Truck," in which she posits herself as the female in bro-country party anthems. What seemed a clever twist on a hot trend in mainstream country radio nearly caused her to walk away from country music entirely. By the time her song and its accompanying video came out in the summer of 2014, bro country had become an embattled subgenre, drawing fire from critics and purists alike. Complicating matters for Rose, emerging country duo Maddie & Tae released the similarly styled "Girl in a Country Song" the same month, which fared better, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's Country Airplay chart.
"Every conversation I was having was, 'What do you think about bro country?' And I was like, 'I don't.' I love this song, and I'm supporting three songwriters who I think are awesome," Rose tells the Scene. "I thought this was a cool way to put a female in the mix of all these things being celebrated. But when I saw the political climate of where I was sitting with all of that, it was my time to step back."
She largely stopped performing, and focused instead on writing songs and producing the forthcoming debut album from Washington, D.C., quartet The Morrison Brothers. Now, 18 months removed from the public eye, she's poised to re-emerge this month as an independent artist, with a rejuvenated emphasis on "independent."
"I won't apologize for 'The Girl in Your Truck' song," she says. "But I do think that I had to correct where that perception of me was being shaped by that song."
Toward that end, gone is the eagerness to please others at the expense of herself, born, she says, from her Catholic upbringing. Gone is a wardrobe others chose for her. Gone are the shoulder-length platinum hair, high-waisted jeans and floral-print shirt from the "Truck" video. Seated on the patio of Crema coffeehouse earlier this month, her hair was slicked back and brushed over her ears, and her fitted leather coat was more haute couture than Ryman centerstage. She looked seasoned, centered, rested and confident.
Importantly, she says she's also writing songs that reflect the diversity of her personal tastes, which resulted in The Variety Show — Vol. 1, an eclectic five-song EP due Feb. 26, which touches on pop ("Inevitable"), Americana ("Broken") and R&B ("Love Me More").
"Each of these songs fills a niche for me," she says. "They're pretty authentic to where I come from."
She says The Variety Show — Vol. 2, due May 27, promises even greater sonic diversity.
"I really wanted to drive home the variety-show element of these releases," she explains. "For people who know me, it is a way to also introduce them to some sides of my musicianship that I haven't showcased before. For people who don't know me, this will be a cool introduction to show my versatility."
She's not kidding. Part of that "versatility" includes appearing on the forthcoming single "Laid Back," by powerhouse songwriter Dallas Davidson. He's also her publisher. In a genre-crossing mashup even more improbable than Sting and Toby Keith in 1997, "Laid Back" features Davidson, Rose and rapper-producer Big Boi (OutKast) trading verses about their respective adolescent years. Hip-hop icon Mannie Fresh produced the single, due in March.
"I was 19 when I moved here, and I'm 27 now," Rose says. "I feel like I've changed just as much as Nashville has since I've moved here. I had been a watered-down version of who I wanted to become because I was making fear-based decisions. I didn't realize how much fun it can be if you take the governor off and just do what you feel is right."
She offers up an example for the kind of artist she'd like to grow into.
"Lee Ann Womack gives zero fucks. She's seriously awesome, and she's never swayed on who she is. She's so talented, and she has the best shoe game in the business."
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