Rett Madison Performs ‘Kids Having Kids’ During Holler Nashville Session Presented by Montucky Cold Snacks

During the latest Holler Nashville Session presented by Montucky Cold Snacks, country-folk prodigy Rett Madison has delivered a stunning trio of performances, including a stripped-back rendition of her narrative masterpiece, ‘Kids Having Kids’.

The deeply evocative song finds the Los Angeles singer-songwriter stepping into the shoes of a teenager in a small, rural town that is suddenly faced with an unplanned pregnancy.

The nuances and beautifully moving subtleties of Rett Madison's lyrics are brought to the fore in this new acoustic version of ‘Kids Having Kids’, with the fast-emerging artist performing the track alongside nothing more than a sparse, noodling acoustic guitar.

A demo take of ‘Kids Having Kids’ was included on Noise For Now's Songs for Sex compilation project, which dropped earlier in October and was geared towards raising funds for The National Women's Health Network. After this acoustic performance, we're hoping Madison is planning on giving this song a full release in the near future.

In the meantime, Madison's burgeoning listenership have a brand new deluxe project to look forward to, with One More For Jackie arriving this Friday (October 25th). It serves as a celebration of the up-and-coming artist's major label debut with Warner Records, One For Jackie, and will see the addition of four new songs.

Thankfully, Rett Madison has also performed the fan-favourite track that inspired the title of both the original album and the forthcoming deluxe, ‘One for Jackie, One For Crystal’, for her Holler Nashville Session, presented by Montucky Cold Snacks.

‘One For Jackie, One For Crystal‘ is another example of Rett Madison's ability to conjure up storytelling magic through her vivid, visceral songwriting style, with this particular offering exploring a dark tale of retribution against an abusive father.

The stormy, atmospheric ambience of the studio version is peeled back, again, leaving only Madison and her guitar. Rather than omitting some of the feeling of the original, this has the powerful effect of accentuating the gravitas of the story, as Madison regales the listener with the menacing ode to vengeance, over an instrumental that gradually swells as the story reaches its haunting climax.

When announcing the song back in 2023, Madison described ‘One For Jackie, One For Crystal’ as “my take on a murder ballad. It’s a rage fantasy in song form about seeking vengeance against a man that got away with abusing my mother as a child”, before the genre-blending prodigy expanded, “While anger is very much at the forefront of this song, love and support for my mother and survivors is at the core”.

The last of the three songs Madison treated us to for her Holler Nashville Session, ‘Pin-Up Daddy’, arguably feels the most personal.

Accompanied by the undulating strum of her guitar, Rett Madison offers a striking reflection on gender fluidity. The ‘Fortune Teller’ crooner nimbly delves into navigating the challenges of other people's perceptions, before reaching the rousing, heartening crescendo (“No matter what side of the bed I wake up on today / I still rise, I'm alive, I am everything / I don't give a fuck what the world thinks they're looking at / I'm a pin-up daddy / Twirling in my heels with my hair slicked back”.

This trifecta of stellar performances from Rett Madison consolidates her role at the forefront of an exciting new wave of artists, unafraid to speak her truth, and using the majesty of music to enhance and accentuate the intimacy of her insightful musings. It ensures the sense of anticipation is sky-high ahead of One More For Jackie.

Rett Madison's Holler Nashville Session, presented by Montucky Cold Snacks, was recorded at Riverside Revival in Nashville, and was directed by Joshua Britt and Neilson Hubbard.