Welcome back to Uncharted, an Uproxx original series highlighting the best artists you haven’t heard of, yet. With the support of our friends at Honda, we are following some of the best emerging talent as they follow their dreams and make great music.
Don’t confuse Madisen Ward and his mom for some sort of family band traveling in a painted bus; the two performing as a folk duo is not a gimmick.
Back in the ’60s and ’70s, Ruth Ward was a gigging folk and soul musician in the Midwest, who even managed to put out a record. But those musical aspirations were set aside once family came into the picture.
“My mom started to become a fan of the things that I was writing. She would tell me, ‘Hey, I’m gonna take a break during this show. You should go up and play a couple songs,’” Madisen said. “It just kept blossoming from there. I started playing on the songs that my mom was doing, she started playing on my original songs, and the songs just started to take shape more and more and kind of almost develop their own sound. It wasn’t so much of her taking a break anymore, it was just the two of us going up there and playing.”
This blurring eventually became popular enough that the two were playing serious gigs. Eventually, they came to a crossroads.
“I asked her, ‘Do you want to just actually pursue this for real?’ and she said, ‘Yeah, definitely.’ So I asked, ‘If someone came in and said You’re going on the road now, this is your life, you’d be cool with that?’ and she said yes. So I said, ‘Alright, we’re just going to keep going. We’re not putting any brakes on this. We’re just going to keep trying to put this music out in front of as many people as we can, and if anyone offers us any opportunities, we’re not saying no.'”
That was the beginning for the mother and son folk duo Madisen Ward and The Mama Bear. The two got to work furiously, writing songs and touring to get their dream out to the world. But aside from all the great feelings that come from songwriting and hitting the road, perhaps the greatest joy for the 26-year-old Madisen is giving his mom a second chance.
“I think, in the beginning, it was just something we were just pursuing, and we were happy to be able to do it,” he said. “But I think it stirs up lots of emotions that you don’t necessarily know were there. My mom, she wasn’t pursuing music in that sense in her later life, so it was probably a dream that was long gone and not necessarily one that she was focusing on, but I know that once we started to get some of the opportunities that we’ve been able to get, it’s kind of started to be a walk down memory lane like, ‘Wow, I remember when this was really a time where I really did want to pursue this. This really was a real dream, and who would’ve ever thought that this would’ve come back full circle?'”
Oddly enough, even though it seems obvious that this means so much to Ruth, 63, music was such a second nature to Madisen, he never even noticed. “I always looked at it like this was something that she did… I had never even thought of the business side of it being a dream you’re going after. I never sensed that from her. I always felt more like that guitar was like her left arm and she just played it all the time.”
The two know that their situation is unique; it’s rare that anyone wants to hang out with their mom the majority of the time, let alone go into business with them, especially these days when the proliferation of devices has come at the expense of human contact. But the reason that they’ve managed that dynamic solely speaks to their chemistry as a band. “I think we were already set in our ways, but now we’re allowed to do it in front of more people. We’ve never had a power dynamic problem. It’s always just been as long as you respect each other, you’re fine. I think the only struggle we’ve had is my mom’s and my personalities. We butt heads, and that’s literally because I think we’re too alike [laughs]. I think there’s a part of us that’s alike and sometimes artists tend to be moody with each other. We butt heads, but it’s usually not from an artistic standpoint, it’s just typical family stuff.”
But now, what was once jamming with a family member in back rooms and coffee houses has turned into an actual route for success. Soul and folk acts that throw back to the ’60s and ’70s show that there’s an audience for this kind of music, even in these times. And while Madisen admits that Madisen Ward and The Mama Bear isn’t as overtly political as some of those acts are, it’s more about the attention to lyrics and songwriting that attracts him to those genres.
“Even though you can still google the lyrics of a rock song of somebody yelling something and get inspired by what they’re saying, whenever you have folk music — the stripped down nature of it — it’s really highlighting what’s coming out of your mouth, and it’s getting rid of the clutter… I guess that’s why it’s called singer/songwriter. It’s a genre that can really express those messages.”
All things considered, yes, the partnership of the band is a truly fulfilling artistic expression for these two. But perhaps most importantly, it has been a rich moment for them as mother and son. “For me, it’s amazing to be able to see her be able to walk down a road that she didn’t quite fully travel when she was younger. And I think for her to be able to see her son make that into a career and actually be hand in hand on that career path — you know most parents don’t see that with their kid. You just say, ‘Hey, Dad, I’m a doctor now;’ [the parents] aren’t there through med school watching them get the right answers on the tests. So for her to be able to witness that and me being able to witness her coming back to music in a really cool way, that’s been amazing.”
Madisen Ward and The Mama Bear’s album Skeleton Crew is available now. For more from the group, visit their website.
