Lisa MacIsaac and Brenley MacEachern
Last summer I fell in love with Madison Violet’s new album Eleven, which was released on July 1st, 2022, and it became anthemic to my summer. The album was nominated for four East Coast Music Awards this past Spring, and it is still featured prominently in my playlist rotation, along with the duo’s earlier records. Madison Violet, which is made up of Brenley MacEachern and Lisa MacIsaac, will perform at the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival on Friday August 11th, 2023.
One of the things that makes Eleven special among Madison Violet’s other ten records is that they produced this one themselves. During the Covid lockdowns MacEachern bought a 1972 Tradewind Landyacht Airstream Trailer, which included a recording studio. Due to the pandemic shuttering their ordinarily busy touring and travelling schedule, MacEachern and MacIsaac had time to restore the Airstream Studio, and they also took online courses in studio engineering from the Berkelee College of Music, which gave them the tools to make this record themselves. According to Music Gateway only about 2% of Producers in the Music Industry are women or non-binary folks.
Eleven opens with “Utah,” which was co-written with MacEachern’s dad, Steve, and it’s a lovely meditation in how our memories shift and slow as we get older, but how certain experiences remain vividly in the forefront of our minds regardless. “You know my memory is growing shorter/ every day that I grow older/ so excuse me/ if I can’t follow our conversation/ oh excuse me if what I need/ is a little more patience,” MacEachern sings with a beautiful gentleness and care. I love the sincerity with which the narrator of the song asks so plainly for what they need: patience and kindness in a world that often seems to be in short supply of both. MacIsaac adds her signature fiddle to complement the wistful emotions of the lyrics.
MacEachern and MacIsaac are consummate storytellers, each of their songs are a meticulously crafted tale that invites the listener to take a journey along with the song’s characters, often into very personal and intense moments of their lives. “The Sycamore” tells the story of a woman struggling with disordered eating, and how her partner is lovingly supporting her during this difficult time, and trying to help her find her way back to wellness. However, the partner is also struggling with not knowing if what she is doing is helpful or enough. Andrew Beach directed a poignant music video for “The Sycamore,” which really brings the song to vibrant life. I love the imagery of the dancing among the trees, showing how there is so much more to this young woman’s life than her relationship with food, but that it still sometimes has the power to derail everything else.
“Sweet Desperado” tells about a person who is having trouble sleeping because they miss someone so deeply. The lyric that always jumps out at me from this song is, “oh me oh my I miss you/ It’s not my business to fix you,” which allows the listener to fill in her own blanks about why this relationship may have ended in the first place. As with all Madison Violet songs MacEachern and MacIsaac’s harmonies are so lush and seamless, you feel like you could fall into a canyon of their voices.
Most Madison Violet records have one track that is so heartbreaking that I usually keep it off my fun road trip mix, and on Eleven that is “We Lost the Light,” a gorgeous, but incredibly sad song inspired by the tragic loss of MacEachern’s twenty year old niece. We never anticipate losing our younger family members, and that sense of sorrow and out-of-order, nightmarish devastation is beautifully captured here.
My two favourite tracks on Eleven are “Not Allowed to Love You” and “Jackson.” I am an absolute sucker for all Madison Violet songs that include the harmonica, and it just wails out with such an irresistible melancholy sexiness in “Jackson.” The story here is a bit more vague, inviting you to use your imagination, but with the chorus beginning, “Jackson, I’ve got a picture for you/ Of me and your mother/ under the covers/ lovers in June” things are immediately off to an intriguing start! “Not Allowed to Love You” tells the story of the end of a relationship and the way it has left our narrator feeling entirely unmoored and chasing the memories of happier days when her life made more sense. Lisa MacIsaac’s voice is especially beautiful and laden with emotion as she sings these poetic lines, “will you think of me/ will I fade into some corner of your memory/ and in my company/ all the ones that came before me/ fallen soldiers of your army…” I love the imagery of the fallen soldiers, and our narrator searching for compatriots who understand this specific loss as they have experienced it themselves.
Brenley MacEachern and Lisa MacIsaac both have roots in Cape Breton, but are now based in Ontario. They have been making award-winning music together as Madison Violet since 1999. After their performance at the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival on Friday they have a slew of dates in September and October in Austria, Switzerland, and France. For more information please visit this website.
Madison Violet performs at the Main Stage Tent (11 Blockhouse Hill Road, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia) at the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival at 10:05pm on August 11, 2023. Festival Tickets and Passes are available HERE. For more information about the festival and to see the full line-up of performers please visit this website. You can find Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Read more about their Greening Policies Here.
You can purchase Eleven on CD, along with other physical music and merch, on the Madison Violet website. You can also find them on Spotify, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, and wherever else you stream or buy your music.
