MADDIE & TAE
LOVE & LIGHT

Maddie & Tae can’t help themselves. Since bursting into public consciousness with the power-acoustic slayer “Girl In A Country Song,” which skewered BroCountry’s female stereotypes and received the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame’s coveted I Wish I Wrote That Song honor, the ride-or-die besties have been speaking truth about what it means to be smart, young women.

“Die From a Broken Heart,” their second No. 1 which went RIAA Gold at the same time it hit country’s Top 40, was an unblinking look at the way being dumped can lay one out. But Maddie Font and Tae Kerr have never been ones to be defeated; instead, the pair of brazen songwriters come back stronger.

Love & Light, their 16-song take on what a woman should know over what people tell them, is a festival of freedom, fun, reality, what it takes to chase dreams, and how powerful acceptance can be. Even more than the acoustic-forward – chiming acoustic guitars, well-deployed dobro, banjo and resonator guitar, as well as pools of steel guitar and mandolin shine – it’s the pair’s sleek harmonies and sharp writing that define what will most likely be called the Country Music Association Award winners’ “coming of age record.”

“Back to resilience: We always figure it out; that’s given us confidence of knowing, ‘Okay, I’ve been down seven bajillion times, but I’ve gotten back up seven bajillion times too. So, I’ve got this,’” Font begins. “Tae and I always want our records to be comforting to people at the end of the day. Whether it’s empowerment, a badass breakup song or whatever, we want everyone who hears these songs to know: you’ve got this.”

“With each album,” Kerr adds, “we’ve realized our sisterhood and girl anthems, our heartbreak anthems, that’s what makes us us. We’ve lived it, you know? We’ve lived ‘Drunk Girls In Bathrooms’ together. We’ve lived through ‘Kissing Cowboys,’ both of us! When we were single, kissing frogs and looking for princes – and your best friend’s saying, ‘GIRL! Go get him!!’ or ‘That one’s a piece of shit! Ditch him, and try again…’

“So both of us have lived it and we’ve lived it together, so it’s not just story-telling, but story-telling true stories.”

Whether the melodic “Chasing Babies & Raising Dreams,” which digs into the balance of raising children while committing to a demanding career, the plucky come-on “Fall In Love & Find Out” or the breezy get stuffed dismissal of “Only Jesus” and feisty, funny swagger of “Girl In Alabama,” the women New York Newsday praised for their “heart on your sleeve twang that should fill the void created by Taylor Swift’s move to pop” continue creating a full range of music that delivers the soundtrack for women coming into their own – whether breaking out, breaking up or creating a safe space for friends.

Indeed, “Heart You Didn’t Break” serves as an homage to those ride-or-die friends who show up when it all goes down. “Sad Girl Summer” makes getting one’s shine back a team sport with extra empowerment, a jolt of truth about one’s real value and a plan for one heckuva night out.

It doesn’t end there. Laughing, Maddie confesses, “I feel like I’ve metabolized bullshit for such a long time just to people please. Tae and I both are finally to a place where people-pleasing isn’t our priority. We’ve found our voices and know how to use them. I hope this album encourages our fans to value their peace, their knowing, their self-worth, and be confident in it!”

“It’s the optimist that’s ingrained in us, that’s in our blood,” Kerr picks up. “Maddie and I both run from sadness and hard feelings. Anything with a low vibration, we’re like, ‘Yeah, we want nothing to do with it.’ But getting gone doesn’t mean you can’t do it with a smile.”

They can also do it with an all-star band of players who deliver a gleaming country that swerves from pop to soul to classic without ever forcing the style. Enlisting bluegrass sensation Bryan Sutton, Academy of Country Music Guitarist and 2-time Specialty Instrumentalist of the Year Danny Rader, 4-time ACM Bassist of the Year Jimmie Lee Sloas, electric guitarist Kris Donegan and drummers Evan Hutchings and Aaron Sterling among many, there’s a joy to the playing that transcends Nashville’s basic cycle of 10, 2 and 6 o’clock recording sessions. You can hear the fun they’re having in the studio.

Love & Light started with longtime friend, co-writer and producer Corey Crowder. They also worked with co-writers and producers Chris LaCorte and Josh Kerr.

Notice the similarity in last names. It’s no coincidence. Josh and Tae are married, which made stepping in easy. As Tae says, “I got the best deal, because I got to make a record with my two best friends.”

Maddie agrees. “Josh was the missing piece of the puzzle. He knows what we like, the sounds we gravitate to. He knows the kinds of solos, how much mud we want on the tracks. Every time he’d send tracks with notes or questions, there’d often be nothing to say because he nailed it.”

The label agreed. Both girls marvel at the response from Mercury Nashville. Maddie explains, “This time, the label let us find our power and take the reins for the first time, saying, ‘We have confidence in you all.’ We haven’t had a single at radio since ‘Die From a Broken Heart,’ but they see the size of the crowds. We’re playing to a couple thousand people on our own, and they’re there because they feel like we do, and they want to share those emotions.”

Sometimes it’s the lush transformance of “What A Woman Can Do” and the gentle pep talk to a man ignoring his woman “Somebody Will.” Other times it’s the buzzy getting gone from a guy celebration “Free Like” or the refusal to take on the bitterness in the step-and-repeat punch of the moving on bop “Love & Light.” No matter the moment or emotion, Maddie & Tae deliver a glorious sense of joy in refusing to take any of the negativity into their hearts.

“Our journey has broken down a couple times, and our joy has been shattered,” Maddie confesses. “It’s been rebuilt many times, but we’ve also learned to protect it really well – and not feel guilty about doing that.”

“I love that younger girls, even young female artists, see our path and realize it doesn’t have to be this way,” Tae continues. “I wish we’d had some of these songs and this record when we were young.”

“Even the title track,” Maddie picks up, “came from a place of so much negativity. I was like, ‘How can I conjure that negativity so I can flip it on its head?’ Productive pain, taking something hard and making it beautiful is our favorite thing. Watching God take the ashes from something that’s burned to the ground and build something beautiful is inspiring; it’s such a miracle.”

Women of both great faith and little tolerance for double talk, justification, and bloated egos, the 10-time CMA and Academy of Country Music Duo of the Year nominees are in a good place. Leaning into their influences, they’ve figured out the torque needed to create a true representation of what women – and men – want.

“That Come On Over record, even Up, Shania was just oozing confidence,” Tae explains. “I think she was in her 30s, and there’s something magical about that Saturn-return energy; something just pops off there. We had some of that for sure.”

“And we were inspired by a lot of R&B records, too,” Maddie adds. “Silk Sonic, stuff like that, got into the studio, too. I think you could call it ‘Main Character Energy.’ Strong points of view, big melodies and a lot of space for people to live their lives in these songs. To me, that’s the best thing we can do.”

More than merely giving permission to invest in a little pleasure, not feel guilty about falling in love for the night or recognizing it’s time to walk out, Maddie & Tae want to take their bright, shiny brand of country and use it to make people feel the best possible emotions in the world. Having been through plenty of drama, roadblocks and bad decisions, they know ^%$& happens, but it’s how you shovel it that makes all the difference in the world.

It’s why “Any Kind of Lovin’” sets a pretty high bar for satisfaction and the sleek soul-infused “Drunk Girls in Bathrooms” lets everyone in on the secret to why girls go to the Ladies Room in pairs. Laughing, Kerr says, “It’s a whole other party going on, and it’s the best energy there is. If the whole world would love each other like drunk girls in the bathroom, I think we’d all be a lot better off. More supported, for sure, but also just looking out for each other and wanting everyone to do well and be happy.”

“There’s so much sisterhood on this record,” Maddie marvels. “I feel like the world is missing a lot of that ‘drunk girls in bathrooms’ energy. The sister code is simple: be a good friend, a great soul sister, because that’s what we’re put here to do.”