One of the best parts of live concerts? Often you get to hear new tunes before they hit streaming. And one of the best parts of being with KUTX is that sometimes those sneak peaks come in the form of intimate, one-of-a-kind performances. So yeah, even though the gates are open and ACL Fest Weekend Two is officially in full swing, you’d better believe we’re still rolling out our incredible Weekend One repertoire.

And today’s in-tent listen is especially timely. It comes courtesy of Costa Mesa’s Madison Cunningham, a folk-pop Americana rocker whose finally getting some great traction. As the daughter of a pastor, the first leg of Cunningham’s career was spent within the Christian community. But not too long after touring with Andrew Bird and earning a Grammy nomination for her 2019 secular sophomore LP Who Are You Now, Cunningham culled her worship debut Authenticity from streaming. While we can’t attribute that migration towards agnostic thinking to a sense of restrictions being lifted, we do recognize the boundaryless beauty of last year’s Revealer, which scored Cunningham a Grammy for Best Folk Album this February.

Safe to say momentum’s on Madison’s side right now, and fortunately for us, that whirlwind of talent’s still in town. Madison Cunningham plays 10PM tomorrow night at Scoot Inn before returning to ACL Fest 12:45PM this Sunday at the American Express stage – two great opportunities to see this ever-maturing muse in-person before she blows up even more. But if neither are in the cards for you, don’t fret; the pop-up rendition of Cunningham’s latest (whose studio counterpart just appeared on streaming mere hours ago) “Subtitles” is accessible whenever you’re ready. After three-and-a-half minutes you’ll agree that, “good god, the pipes on this woman are something else!”.

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