One to Watch: Kadie Meadows
I’ve found that when Kadie Meadows sings, the world isn’t such a damn cold place.
The self-dubbed “Sad Song Sally” has a way with words - a real-life Appalachian siren, breathing her poetry into the dusty hollows of the Tri-State Region and beyond.
Inspired by her buckeye roots - Zanesville, Ohio for those of us keeping track - Meadows has been gaining hefty steam following her 2021 inaugural album, Memory Lane, pulling words and creativity from the experiences that life has thrown before her.
“Memory Lane was me processing the first 20 years of existence in song,” said Meadows of the collection. “I love these songs so much, they mean a lot to me - they were all extremely cathartic to create and to have them embedded forever in a real-life record is still so surreal to me!”
You’ll find that Meadows has a defining voice that is soothing, yet sharp. Warm, but bitingly frigid. It can melt in one line, dying like a tired ember, only to rage in the next, bull-dozing and confident in its verse and demanding delivery. To sound completely cliche, it’s on one of those ‘once in whatever’ type of things.
As for her writing style, Meadows didn’t have to search very hard for her magic muse.
“I grew up next door to my maternal great-grandparents,” Meadows recalls. “As children, my Grandma Davidson would always read my sister and I old poems and stories from her collection of books. Grandma also wrote a lot herself, she kept a daily journal and even had a few of her own poems published. I would absolutely attribute a massive part of my love for writing and poetry to her.”
“The Ohio Song,” “Too Drunk to Play,” and “Fair Weather Frieda” are just a few of the renderings that ooze of her sound, highlighting Meadows’ ability to capture moments with words. It’s a gift that she has been able to deliver across much of the foothill region during festival season and other intimate showcases. With troubadour spirit, Meadows is meticulously whittling her name into the bark of the Americana music scene, something that she does not down play, acknowledging the growth that female artists have influenced on the genre expansion.
“It means the world to me,” said Meadows of her climbing influence. “I think women have always been held to a different standard in music, and especially in country music. So it’s great to see an upswing of ladies in this genre! The surge of this newer Appalachian scene has been incredible to witness and I’m beyond honored that I am able to consider myself a small part of it.”
And for the aspiring creators yearning for Meadows’ old-time country secret to penning lasting lyrics, it’s not all that complex.
“Write what you know,” exudes Meadows. “Never stop writing, and if you think you have a good song idea or line, write that shit down!”
Find out more about Kadie below: