UMG Nashville

“Your 20s are such a weird time.

You’re settling into your life, but you’re not settled.
I’m supposed to have my shit figured out, but how do you start?”

– Taylor Kerr

“That’s our freakin’ struggle:
it’s harder to write real, riskier to write what happens.

But Tae and I are like, ‘We want to write deep and lived.’”

– Madison Font

And so, Through The Madness Vol. 2 arrives. The 8-cut second half of critically acclaimed, CMA Award-winning duo Maddie & Tae’s 1-2 punch sifts through reaching adulthood the hard way: on the road, in the public eye, in the rubble of a label imploding, as well as getting married, buying homes and for Kerr, having a baby.

But if Vol. 1 was tentative walking across broken glass or burning sand, Vol. 2 is the more confident, even jubilant, take on moving forward. Settled, strong, ready, the songwriters offer a harmony-drenched song cycle that shifts youth into a grown-up world that’s anything but stodgy.

From the sparkling piano cascade/guitar corkscrewed opener “Well In Your World,” an easy midtempo that celebrates a love that’s gone with good memories and better wishes, Maddie & Tae’s inherent grace is on full display. Not just the maturity of knowing first love has a shelf-life, but the thrill of what that rush was permeates their vocals with a true warmth.

That same honoring what was – without wanting to go back – infuses “Drinking To Remember” with a shine that long-gone love engenders. It’s not that it was so bad or over, but the fact that it was that creates a reason to look back fondly and not bury what couldn’t be.

“This is us in a perspective of healing,” Tae explains. “It’s reflection, even maturity. We’ve both been doing the inner work – and I don’t think either of us realized it in the moment – and it shifted our approach a little. It’s still us, and we’re still being honest...”

“But there’s a confidence on Vol. 2,” Maddie picks up, “that’s stronger. There’s a different strength. Our albums are usually us working through our problems real time – and this is more reflection-based. ‘Drinking To Remember,’ ‘Watching Love Leave,’ these are places where you’ve been through this; it’s tough, but you know now that you’re gonna get through it.”

“Watching Love Leave” sees a partner move out, knowing both people’s futures are brighter up ahead. Like “More Than Maybe,” the next track, both songs recognize everyone deserves more than okay, almost or good enough. It takes courage to embrace the concept of what one deserves, to let someone go and know there’s better up ahead.

That strength defines these seemingly life-on-their-sleeves songwriter/vixens.

“I’ve seen comments from people (on social media) saying it’s like reading our diaries,” Tae affirms. “When we started, we had to write what we lived because we were so much younger, and we were girls. And that’s what built us our audience, other people living through those moments, too.”

“These are emotions we all have,” Maddie continues. “It’s part of life. Our duty as songwriters is to represent those feelings as honestly as possible, even when it hurts. When we get it right, there’s an instant feeling of less loneliness... and you know someone out there’s got you, gets you.”

If “Die From A Broken Heart,” their second #1, saw Tae impaled by a shattering heartbreak, “These Tears” offered the same razor slash reckoning with profound hurt Maddie endured as a much younger woman.  With classic self-deprecation, the Sugar Land, Texan confesses, “I felt like Tae had to take the sharing all your business on Vol. 1, so for Vol. 2, it was, ‘Okay, your turn bitch...’

“And ‘These Tears’ was definitely the crusher for me. I’d just started therapy and I remember saying, ‘This is a whole can of worms, you’re not gonna wanna open – and you can’t close once you do.’

“I was definitely crying when we wrote it, definitely crying when I sang it. I took that vocal that’s literally Tae and I the very first time, me through the tears; that’s what you hear. I didn’t want to play it in the A&R meeting, but...”

Tae fortifies her friend’s doubt and resolve. “Every single person on our team, the entire team who we played it for: every last one... the response was ‘It made me cry.’”

Laughing, Maddie continues, “I love to be the Golden Child. When Tae and I do things, that’s what we’re going for. Do our best, lift people up, make them feel better. But just because you’re not talking about something, it doesn’t go away. ‘These Tears’ was an offering to myself. It gave me permission to write songs on a different level. It allowed me to go somewhere I’ve never been as a writer – and a person.”

Not that Through The Madness Vol. 2 is an emo sob-fest of done wrong, broken hearts and other betrayals. More the clear-eyed measure of two young women coming into their own, it recognizes the power adversity’s given them and embraces the best of everything life hands them. There’s the wink and older sister affirming “oh, hell no” of the swirling “Girl After My Own Heart,” that sets a prowling young girl on the hunt for love straight about the man she’s thinking looks so fine.

Maddie marvels, “You know, it’s ‘Hey, you’re hot and a 10-out-of-10, but this one right here’s a no-fly zone.’ It’s one of those she’s a little drunk, a little full of herself, but there’s no reason to be mean to her to stand your ground.”

Tae concurs, “There’s this thing where women are pitted against each other; it’s always showing someone how mean you are, how you’re gonna smack’em down. That’s not who we are. This is us saying. ‘Uhm, no!’ But we’re gonna make sure you drink some water, call you an Uber and get you home... or send you on to someone who is available.”

There’s also internationally renowned Japanese “spark joy” minimalist organizer Marie Kondo, who ignites the Miranda Lambert crunch country “Spring Cleaning.” With kick drums punching, the staccato chant “It ain’t spring, but I’m cleaning house...” and the profession “Feeling like a queen in my king-sized bed,” Maddie & Tae own their power.

“It’s coming in a little hot,” Maddie says. “It was the first time we’d ever written with Tayla Parx, and one of my girlfriends had recently gotten a divorce.”

“There’s this break-up thing where you realize,” Tae admits, “this person takes up too much space in your mind.”

Maddie continues, “You know, there’s this place you go, ‘This is what I’m doing with my bad self!’ You don’t look back, don’t regret. Just get him moving, because you gotta make room for happily ever after.”

Happily ever after means so many things. For Maddie & Tae, making music on their terms for the people, recognizing real girls don’t always fit in neat boxes – and that’s something to sing about. It’s also the smallest things from real life, real love and finding the next chapter of how adulting turns out.

“Every Night Every Morning,” loping acoustic guitar, a bit of mandolin sparkle, pedal steel rides and dual glide harmonies, feels like eavesdropping on a conversation from the sweet life. It’s the little details and tiny pleasures that make life not just good, but rich.

“That feels like a nod to my Texas roots, a perfect Gruene Hall two-steeping song,” Maddie begins. “And that first verse is so in the moment, not at the moment, you’re just there. Even when I sing it live, it’s like I’m walking in the door, just running down the day...”

“It’s the only song here that could belong on our first album,” Tae adds. “It’s that piece of us from the very beginning that we’re never letting go of.”

That presence, that knowing who they are – in some ways even more so than before – define the fresh-voiced best friends and artists who’ve eschewed the obvious female tropes in favor being actual young women trying to figure out the messy, the growing up and the beauty of every phase of being.

“There’s no method to the magic,” Tae explains. “The magic’s really us not knowing what we’re doing or where we’re going, but trusting.”

“This is literally 12 years of our writing down what we feel, what we’re thinking.” Maddie affirms. “We had no idea ‘Girl In A Country Song’ would’ve hit the way it did, pissed people off the way it did. We wrote what we felt... about the girls in the songs, who never talked or had a thought. That’s not Tae or I; turned out a lot of other people felt that, too.”

“We’re like ducks,” Tae concludes. “It looks like it’s so peaceful on the top, just swimming serenely by, but under the water, you better bet we’re paddling like crazy. That’s what the madness is all about.”