Madeline Edwards' 'Sunshine In The Rain' begins creatively free chapter of country career
Country music performer Madeline Edwards began the latest chapter of her critically acclaimed creative career barefoot, holding a dozen sunflowers and clad in a long golden sheath while performing earlier this month in the circle at the Grand Ole Opry.
Her latest song, "Sunshine In The Rain," comes 18 months after her brother, Jonah, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia took his own life.
"(Jonah) was the most incredible human I've ever known. He was filled with so much joy and light and relentlessly poured that out to others, even in the midst of his mental illness," Edwards wrote on social media. "Even in the midst of his own pain. He was kind and caring. He was beautiful. More than anything though, he loved Jesus and he taught me to turn my anger at God into anger for God."
Now, feeling freed from the allure of fame chasing her, Edwards is focused on her work as an author, performer and songwriter. She's empowered by no longer being bound by knowing how, where, or when her inspiration will come to her.
A bittersweet bright future ahead
"It was wrinkled up there, but you know what, who cares, right?," Edwards said, of her Opry performance attire. She sips an Old Fashioned cocktail sweetened with honey, three splashes of simple syrup and a thick twist of orange peel as she sits on the front porch of the historic, almost century-old home she and her husband, Jim, just purchased in Old Hickory, Tennessee.
Throw a rock the length of a football field from the gravel road in front of her home and it'll land in the Cumberland River.
Ten minutes prior, she pointed at her still-barren living room walls while highlighting which framed tour posters she would soon place on them. The time she's spent on the road opening for Ella Langley, The Brothers Osborne and Chris Stapleton and others has her uniquely prepared for a year that finds her joining Sheryl Crow, Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson on the road for the Outlaw Road Show Tour.
"That's the kind of booking that really, you know, cements your career," she said, laughing.
She laughs because, though she's signed to Sony Nashville as a songwriter, she's no longer affiliated with Warner Music Nashville as an artist. However, in describing her last year as a songwriter, she rattles off a list of country and pop chart-topping names she's written for in the past 12 months.
"Whether I'm the artist singing them or they're ending up somewhere else, the spiritual songs I'm creating about joy and pain will be coming soon — and I assure you that they're going to resonate with listeners in a way that will be measured, more than anything, by how they move people's souls," Edwards said.
'It's not the accolades, but the people, that define me'
During an interview, Edwards played what amounts to the bones of two dozen songs that will be pared down to create an independent album she surmises will arrive in three months.
They painstakingly define her and her emotional and physical strength as a guide for herself and others looking for either salvation or sanity from her music.
"I pray for moments of silence and solitude to make decisions out of wisdom and not out of fear" offers one prayer Edwards saved as a voice memo.
"Pick up my pride, I'm ready to fight / I'm seeing red, I'm in control / So, go ahead and throw me to the wolves," she sang in 2022. Edwards' life is so connected to her faith that she believes it's assuredly possible that God has a hand in every detail of her existence.
An applicable Bible verse to Edwards' journey comes from King Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes: "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all."
Edwards agrees — no matter how skilled or successful someone is, unexpected events and circumstances can affect everyone, regardless of their abilities or achievements.
"The Grammy I feel like I won didn't come from a stage, it came from the three people who comment on what I'm writing in my Substack these days or from songs that hopefully connect with the tens of thousands of people that social media says are following me," Edwards said. "In this life, it's not the accolades, but the people, that define me."
'Sunshine In The Rain'
California-born and Texas-raised, Edwards has spent the past four years having an extended breakout moment in country music after a half-decade prior working as a performer whose music was best described as either gospel, jazz, or soul.
"After dancing through what seems like the sonic and creative palettes of every other genre, settling down in country music allows my songwriting to reflect best the stories of my family and me, plus those I'm meeting along my journey," she said.
Edwards' best artistry arrives when her spirit shines through in her voice.
"Having country under the spirit of the tone in my voice creates a deeper pocket that communicates that raw emotion better," the performer continues.
Writing "Sunshine In The Rain" with Northern Irish folk singer Foy Vance allowed her to work with someone who respected how she needed not just to write a song, but instead "attach words to colors, feelings, sonics and thoughts."
In retrospect, she draws a corollary to how potently tense and unresolved emotional dualities empower songs from artists' catalogs, including Joni Mitchell and Kacey Musgraves.
"'Sunshine In The Rain,' the song Foy and I finally created, is supposed to feel like the emotion of realizing that the sun's shining, but there's one cloud off in the distance threatening to rain on the sunlight," she said.
New songs navigate a delicate emotional imbalance
Edwards' new music reflects how country music, at its emotional peaks and valleys, does not hold emotions in perfect balance. Instead, they offer a unique resolution wherein a feeling's core cause is identified, then the feelings surrounding it to buffer its impact are slowly drawn away from the core.
Imagine a song like George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today." It tells the story of a husband having a death-bed conversation with his dying wife. He tells her that he'll love her until he dies and she replies, "You'll forget in time." Then, "She still preyed upon his mind "forever."
The imbalance that it creates is precise. Like many like it, the song assumes a delicate sentience when underpinned by pedal steel guitars, string sections, or virtuoso musicianship on acoustic guitars or pianos.
"These days, in my songs, the delicate imbalance you're hearing is how honest I am with working through how for me, like for everyone, some days are harder or worse than others. For many reasons, we're all probably experiencing these weird seasons of grief," said the performer.
"We all reach a point where we finally have lived enough life to begin to understand the value of handling our emotions. When I write down the lyrics to a song that allows someone who subscribed to my Substack to tell me that they feel more deeply connected to their dead husband, I know I'm on the path to doing something right."
A night at the Opry with her brother, Micah
In a Feb. 2025 Substack post , Edwards chronicles being in the middle of a songwriting session with her younger brother, Micah, a guitar-slinging singer-songwriter and receiving a last-minute call to perform at the Grand Ole Opry for Dolly Parton's birthday celebration.
The Opry obliged her request to have her brother join her onstage to perform her 1974-released "Gettin' Happy."
"Without a love to call my own, my life was incomplete / It seems I couldn't help but think that love was not for me," Parton sings.
"As the stage lights dimmed, I stepped into the circle, the weight of that moment pressing into my chest. I glanced toward the wings, catching Micah's gaze as he stood side stage — ten-gallon hat tilted just right, guitar in hand. I had never been prouder to be his big sister," Edwards wrote.
The moment offers a deeper note about how wide-open Edwards' creative and personal future feels when married.
"I'm reflecting everything and nothing all at once," she said.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Madeline Edwards' 'Sunshine In The Rain' begins creatively free chapter of country career
