Rett Madison’s new album, One for Jackie, pays tribute to her mom, who passed by suicide in 2019, leaving her only child with an unbearable sense of responsibility to understand her mother better as she mourned her. “My mom struggled with depression, PTSD, and alcoholism all my life, but her death was shocking and unexpected,” Madison says. “Writing this album, I was moving through grief; it was part of my healing process.”
Over 12 songs, Madison distills the weeks and months following her mother’s death, drawing inspiration from the storytelling she admires in Appalachian folks traditions of her home state, West Virginia, the ‘70s output of Bob Dylan and Dusty Springfield, as well as the music her mother raised her on. Beyond borrowing from the past, One for Jackie cements itself as a modern American classic.
One for Jackie gives the listener an uncanny sense of familiarity, as if immersing ourselves in Madison’s grief, in her memories, allows us to know a little bit of Jackie, too. This is a testament to Madison’s lyricism; she is specific, exacting, and wise even in her most unguarded moments. In death, we tend to flatten people, turn them saintly and pure and faultless, but One for Jackie does something better: it brings her to life.