10 minutes with... Madison Cunningham
Madison Cunningham has built a career out of finding beauty in musical contradictions. Her songs can be intricate without sacrificing intimacy, cerebral without losing emotional immediacy, and rooted in folk traditions while freely absorbing elements of rock, pop, jazz, and experimental music. On Friday, September 25, the singer, songwriter, and guitarist brings The Ace Tour to MASS MoCA’ s Hunter Center in North Adams. She will perform an intimate, stripped-down format accompanied by multiinstrumentalist Jesse Chandler, with special guest Julia Cumming. The performance marks a return to MASS MoCA for Cunningham, who appeared there with Andrew Bird in 2019. Following the release of her third studio album, Revealer, which won a Grammy ® in 2023 for Best Folk Album, Cunningham turned away from the observational distance that had characterized some of her earlier songwriting and placed herself squarely inside the story. Her latest album, Ace, was written largely during a concentrated creative period following heartbreak and writer’ s block. Ace traces the dissolution of a relationship, its emotional aftermath, and the possibility of beginning again. The record also brought a musical reset: Cunningham, long celebrated for her distinctive guitar playing, increasingly gravitated toward piano, allowing the unfamiliar instrument to alter both her songwriting and her relationship with the guitar.
SEAN STOUT
8 // BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE Fall 2026