While residing in Spokane might often feel like living in a remote wilderness outpost that the music industry largely forgets, it's still orders of magnitude more connected to the musical world than Montana is. The Big Sky state has many things going for it, but being a musical hotbed is not one of those benefits. Making it in the music business is a wildly improbable venture even for artists in places like Nashville, Seattle and Los Angeles... but trying to make it from Montana? Essentially impossible.
But the infinitesimal odds don't faze Madeline Hawthorne. The Bozeman singer-songwriter has been plying her craft for over a decade, and in 2024 she's swinging for the proverbial fences.
"It's no Denver, it's no Nashville, it's no New York. It's challenging," Hawthorne remarks about the place she calls home. "The distance from gig to gig is certainly a challenge. And I do appreciate the years that I've spent in Montana, getting used to how far anything is."
While remoteness might be one of the defining aspects about Hawthorne's Montanan musical journey, her music doesn't keep listeners at a distance.
As her 2021 debut LP Boots showcases, it's quite hard to pin down Hawthorne's sound. It's at times intimate folk ("The Toll," "Joker"), dusty rock ("Boots"), and bluesy country ("Pendulum"). The lack of a set genre keeps things fresh rather than seeming like a jumbled mess. In 2023, Hawthorne further expanded her sonic horizons, dropping the single "Neon Wasteland," which leans in a more rocking pop country direction.
When making music, Hawthorne spends a lot of time listening to other artists she loves — not to ape their sound, but to try to find vibes that work. For a lot of that early music, she turned to Sheryl Crow, Tom Petty and Neil Young as reference points.
"When people ask [about my music], I just say 'Americana rock' and give those three names. Nobody wants to put themselves in a box or necessarily or be judged by a genre. But if you can give somebody some artists that they know [it helps]," Hawthorne says. "I still get a lot of [comparisons to] Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt, Susan Tedeschi, Grace Potter... who are all f—-ing badass women."
While Hawthorne isn't a Montana native, she's also not one of the new transplants who have been pouring into the state in recent years. The East Coast native moved to Bozeman in 2008 when she was 18, for a reason befitting a singer-songwriter.
"I was raised in a musical family and actually came out to Montana following my heart," Hawthorne says. "I had met a boy and was ready for anything other than the small town that I was living in in New England (Durham, New Hampshire). So I came out to Montana with him. I had no idea what I wanted, and I didn't really have a plan. I just explored my surroundings in Montana, and in that way, also explored myself and learned a lot about myself, coming out here and being away from family."
For more than a while, music wasn't Hawthorne's main focus. She earned a Master of Science in sustainable food systems from Montana State University, doing music on the side. But about 10 years ago she decided to make the leap and try to do music as her full-time job. It's all part of the growth she's experienced in the new place she called home.
"[It wasn't easy] turning 18 and coming out [here] and learning how to become an adult," Hawthorne says. "Leaving my family and my close friends that I'd grown up with behind and going out on an adventure with someone I had only known for six months... for about a year I was struggling to find my way here and build my own network and in my own family of sorts. Thought about going home and stuck it out. And so over the years, I built a network of friends who either lived here or had come to Montana to search out whatever it was that they were looking for as well. Together, I think we pushed each other to go outside of our daily routine or boundaries."
Hawthorne is looking to break out of the Treasure State in 2024. Not only has she signed up with a booking agency to "bust ass" touring this year (including a stop at District Bar on Jan. 21), but she's finally got her second LP on the way, which will draw on decades of her own musical absorption.
"My musical upbringing was a lot of classical music and jazz, and then I fell in love with folk music and classic rock. And being in Montana, especially recently, I've experienced so much fantastic music that might fall under the umbrella of country. Or Americana, alt-country, outlaw country or red dirt country, whatever you want to call it," Hawthorne says. "So I've definitely been influenced lately by a lot of the great country artists that are coming out now. So you'll definitely hear a lot of that on my upcoming record that we're releasing in 2024."
To make the yet-to-be announced album, Hawthorne headed to the famed Bear Creek Studio just outside of Seattle, to work with acclaimed producer/engineer Ryan Hadlock (whose credits at the studio include Brandi Carlile's The Firewatcher's Daughter). Inspired by artists like Dolly Parton, Willie and Lukas Nelson, and Kacey Musgraves, over the course of 10 days Hadlock and Hawthorne crafted an acoustic guitar-driven album with a fair amount of alt-country flairs like steel pedal guitar.
It's a big ask to break out from a place that the music industry considers the middle of nowhere, but regardless of how things play out in 2024, Hawthorne knows she'll be able to find comfort in the place she calls home.
"We are in a lot of ways isolated, which I also see as a benefit," Hawthorne says. "Because when I come home, I'm able to unplug in a lot of ways and get that space — that time to to recuperate and replenish spiritually, physically and emotionally — that is becoming more and more precious to me the more that I spend time out on the road. So, I very much appreciate the space that I have here in Montana." ♦
Madeline Hawthorne • Sun, Jan. 21 at 8 pm • $12 • 21+ • The District Bar • 916 W. First Ave. • sp.knittingfactory.com
