Madeleine Roger (she/her) is a singer-songwriter from Winnipeg, Canada. While skillfully accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, it is her artistry as a songwriter that can silence a room, uniting her lyrical prowess with breathtaking melodies that linger long after they are sung.
Her newest collection of songs is a deeply personal body of work examining every nook and cranny of love and loss. It is unflinchingly honest, and is the result of three years of soul-digging, experimentation, and fine-tuning - Madeleine has poured over every word. Nerve, the album created in the process (out August 2024 on Birthday Cake Records) is her sophomore release, and it touches the exposed nerve left over from a breakup with a long-term lover and musical collaborator, the death of a soul-friend, the secret of an unrequited love, months of caring for a dying grandparent, and finding a curious peace in spite of it. It was produced by Josh Kaufman (Anaïs Mitchell, Bob Weir, Bonny Light Horseman) and recorded in four days in Kingston NY by engineer D. James Goodwin (The National, Fruit Bats, The Hold Steady).
She has toured extensively across Canada, Europe, USA, and the UK sharing her music live at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, Shetland Island Folk Festival, Vancouver Island Music Festival, Stan Rogers Folk Festival, Summerfolk Festival of Arts and Crafts, among others. She is also a regular collaborator with JUNO award winning string quartet The Fretless, appearing with them in performances and on recordings as a vocalist and co-writer.
English Songwriter of the Year nominee (2020 Canadian Folk Music Awards)
Producer of the Year nominee (2019 Western Canadian Music Awards)
“These are devastating songs - beautiful music from Winnipeg’s Madeleine Roger” - Tom Power, Q on CBC
“Many years ago I shared a band house with touring artists. For a week, I shared a kitchen table and living room with Joni Mitchell, who sang songs and wrote words on paper. I got goose bumps listening to those words and songs. A lifetime later and I’m getting the same goosebumps from a new album Nerve from Winnipeg’s Madeleine Roger. These songs and this singer deserves to be heard - by everyone.”
- Terry David Mulligan, CKUA
Photo by Laina Brown. Layout by Daniel Murphy.
MORE ABOUT “NERVE”
Nerve, the second album by Canadian songwriter Madeleine Roger is a journey into the hidden depths of ourselves. Written in the wee hours over several years, these are brilliantly soul-baring songs.
Whittled down to the 10 most vulnerable songs from an initial 30, the album was recorded in four days with producer Josh Kaufman (Bonny Light Horseman, Bob Weir, Anais Mitchell), engineer D. James Goodwin (Blitzen Trapper, The National, Bonny Light Horseman) and assistant engineer Gillian Pelkonen at The Isokon Studio in Kingston, NY. Each recording began with Madeleine singing and playing acoustic guitar, with producer Kaufman accompanying on an instrument of his choice. No click tracks, no headphones – just the songs coming to life in their most honest form. After multiple takes of each, one complete take was chosen, to which Josh added a gorgeous flurry of textures – organ, tenor guitar, mandolin, Wurlitzer, bass, piano, and drums. Other musicians added their brilliance here and there: JT Bates on drums, Julian Bradford on bass, and Elise Boeur on fiddle. The resulting recordings are raw and full of life, masterfully combining Madeleine’s exceptional songwriting and heartfelt voice with Josh’s intuitive and adventurous production.
“Never have I written such personal songs, so specific and revealing, and had the gumption to share them with anyone. I’ve pulled at these hidden pieces of myself and found that I can handle sharing them. So much of the creation of this album was about going toward things that terrified me – from writing these songs in the first place, to traveling to the US to record them with Josh and Dan, whose work I have deeply admired for many years, to tracking the songs in full without editing the “mistakes,” to mixing the record in a way that keeps my voice front and centre. It’s a piece of my heart brought into the open.”
The album begins with the question “What am I supposed to do with you, my old lover?” and ends with a wish, “I hope you think of me whenever you find wildflowers.” The rest unfolds in a series of snapshots; lovers pulled over in a ditch picking brown-eyed susans, suitcases and guitars being loaded through a front gate for the last time, sparrows singing outside a deathbed window, a lone dancer at the foot of a stage, the aroma of tea in the morning across from a dear one, and a traveler that seems to only have time for one kiss.
Nerve is an uplifting gut-punch; an uninhibited account of risk, longing, regret, grief, and love. Madeleine bravely exposes the delicate and private moments in life that are universal and sets them adrift on melodies and arrangements that make us feel like nothing is insurmountable.
“Madeleine's excellent songwriting, ear for traditional-sounding melodies, fabulous voice, and skillful guitar playing give them a timeless quality, though they speak directly to our time.” - Stan Rogers Folk Festival
“One of the best out there right now.” - If It’s Too Loud
For The Extra Curious
Her years of theatre and travel consumed her from the age of 7 into the end of her degree in Theatre & Film in her early 20s when she finally picked up one of the many guitars lying around her home and started writing songs. A year later she quit theatre, falling hopelessly in love with song-craft and the endless possibilities of music.
A lifelong history of singing in living rooms, musicals, and around bonfires has informed her current comfort on the stage, and the countless hours hanging out in the control room of her Dad's recording studios left an impression on Madeleine, growing up thinking that everyone talked about songwriting and album production at the dinner table.
Her previously released critically-acclaimed album Cottonwood (2018) reflects on femininity and equality, the majesty of the wilderness, and the beautiful awkwardness of trying to love another person. Cottonwood reached the No. 1 spot on the National folk/roots charts in Canada, and also saw Madeleine nominated for both “English Songwriter of the Year” at the 2020 Canadian Folk Music Awards and “Producer of the Year” at the 2019 Western Canadian Music Awards. Madeleine co-produced and co-engineered Cottonwood (2018) with Lloyd Peterson (The Wailin' Jenny's, The Weakerthans, James Keelaghan) at Paintbox Recording in Winnipeg. The album was proudly made with gender parity, and was written from Madeleine’s home in Winnipeg, Canada in a woodstove-heated cabin that her great-grandparents built in the Manitoba backwoods.
She is an advocate for equality and the representation of women in the music industry, and is actively working to get more women behind the board in recording studios.
