Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear, opening up for B.B. King next week, have a new fan over at Rolling Stone
The most delightful mom-and-son duo that we know is Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear, an Independence act that you’ve probably never heard of, but won’t forget once you’ve heard ’em. Now, thanks to an exalting review in Rolling Stone, Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear are getting a little more attention of late.
Adam Gold from Rolling Stone caught the duo at an invite-only gig at Nashville’s Third Man Records during the Americana Music Fest last week. “The duo’s raw, inscrutable chemistry was in full effect as they handily made a case as an inevitable force to be reckoned with in the days to come,” wrote Gold in an article earlier this week. (Read the rest here.)
“We were just floored by it,” Madisen Ward says over the phone. “It was real heart-warming and just overall encouraging. It made us really want to work even harder.”
The next opportunity for locals to see Madisen and his mother Ruth Ward at their best is on Wednesday, October 1, at the Midland Theater, where the duo opens for blues legend B.B. King.
“Right now, that just seems like a surreal once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, one that was kind of in the works for a while,” Madisen says. “To get it was pretty amazing. Just to open for this icon, it’s breathtaking. We feel fortunate.”
Though official recordings from this act are few – the debut EP, We Burned the Cane Field, came out in 2012 – Madisen says that there is plenty of fresh material.
“A lot of the stuff that people would see at our live shows right now is new material,” Madisen tells me. “We haven’t recorded any of it yet. We’re writing stuff all the time. We just sat in at Third Man Records in Nashville and I wrote a new song just for that event, actually, a few days prior. We’re just feeling things out right now, but that’s definitely in the works. We’re not sure as to when, but it’s coming up. We’ll definitely be recording by the end of this year or early next year.”
You can catch Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear at the Midland on Wednesday, October 1, opening up for B.B. King. Details on that show here.
