Rett Madison presents a troubling account that is difficult to accept on "Mother’s Girl." Madison, an LA-via-West Virginia transplant, looks back at her past upbringing through a truthful lens, that of a child who had to cope with a parents’ substance abuse. "I look at my mother," she introduces with chilling effect, a stark, yet effective image which evokes so much without uttering a single detail. But Madison is a classic storyteller at heart. She proceeds to recount a drunken stupor that’s all too familiar, as she sees herself through her mother’s eyes, her commanding alto wrapped around a thorny stem. Madison’s spare, folk-laced strum is bone-chillingly somber, yet downright beautiful, where a crescendoing string accompaniment detects an aura of sadness to her words with a striking emotional punch.
Madison is slated to perform at Hotel Café on June 6 alongside Eli Pafumi. Listen to "Mother’s Girl" on Spotify. – Juan Rodríguez