Lacie Madison

www.LacieMadison.com
www.myspace.com/LacieMadison
&
www.youtube.com/LacieMadison

Lacie Madison:
Big Talent from Big Sky Country

By PHIL SWEETLAND
Music and Radio contributor, The New York Times

NASHVILLE – There are fewer than 1 million people in Lacie Madison’s entire home state of Montana, but the beautiful singer and songwriter feels that since she moved to the big city of Nashville a year ago, “I really do feel like this is where I fit.”

Lacie’s huge move to Music City “has inspired me, which surprised me,” she says. “I was expecting 10,000 singers to move here a day, but instead I’ve found lots of people that are similar to me, and musicians that I love to hang out with.”

Within a few weeks of arriving, she met one of her musical heroes, the Grand Ole Opry legend Jim Ed Brown. Not long after that, she auditioned for – and immediately got – the role of Andrew Jackson’s wife, Rachel Donelson Jackson, in the critically acclaimed and Hollywood-produced PBS special on Jackson called Good, Evil, and The Presidency, which was filmed in Middle Tennessee.

And in July, Madison completed the recording of her debut solo album, working with many of Jim Ed’s A-list, Opry session players, and featuring a dozen self-written Lacie songs.

Phew! Talk about hitting the Nashville ground running!

Much of Lacie’s success onstage and in front of a camera comes from a natural love of performing. She’s already played shows everywhere from the Little Big Horn Battlefield in Montana to the Limelight in Nashville, and tells us “there’s nothing more exciting than being able to get up there and do a 3-minute song, and make somebody’s day. As a fan, you remember entertainers who are on stage, loving what they do. You can’t fake that.”

Her parents are Baby Boomers who relocated to Montana when Lacie was 6 months old. Dad owns a manufacturing company whose clients include McDonald’s; Mom home-schooled Lacie and remains her biggest fan. “She was always encouraging,” Madison says. “Mom’s a professional audience.”

As a kid, Lacie remembers watching a Dolly Parton Christmas special on TV and being hooked. “My parents taped it, and I watched that show over and over.”

Dolly’s total range of talents, from singing to songwriting to acting to running businesses, remains an inspiration to Lacie to this day. Even at a very young age, Madison wanted to read every book she could get her hands on about Parton and her other favorite Country stars. Armed with that knowledge, Lacie entered the contests so often on her favorite Radio station, KBOZ Country 99.9 in Bozeman, that she knew exactly when each 30-day time limit had expired so that she could enter again.

She taught herself guitar after seeing another performer play one during a Civil War Reenactment. Just three weeks later, she made her solo debut – in front of 2,000 people at the Little Big Horn. “Oh, it was wonderful,” she recalls. “I was a little nervous, but once you get started you’re fine.”

The debut album showcases Madison’s remarkable versatility. The songs vary from the Radio-friendly tempo “Lucky Stars” to the heartfelt ballad “Sunday Morning” and the Western Swing-based “Honky Tonk Love.” Since moving to Nashville, Lacie has begun studying piano, which has already created a classic Row studio moment.

“I told all the session guys I wasn’t going to write any new stuff just before we went into the studio, because I had everything all charted beforehand,” she says, with a grin. “But the night before the session, I sat down at the piano and started playing the melody that became ‘In Life.’ So there I was the next morning, putting on my eyeliner, and writing the lyrics on a countertop. But these musicians are so professional, they charted it right then and there in the studio, and it’s now one of my favorite songs on the album.”

Welcome to Nashville, Lacie. It’s clear you’re here to stay.

- Updated August 16, 2008