Biography
Madisen Ward has discovered that his mother can serve as a strong musical partner in addition to family ties. The mother-and-son act Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear drew sudden notice across the roots-music world in 2014 after extensive media coverage highlighted their understated yet potent approach, built on acoustic guitars and vocals that weave folk, blues, and gospel threads into a style connecting earlier eras with current ones. Their first album, Skeleton Crew, issued in 2015, reflected the folk-oriented side of their work, while the 2018 EP The Radio Winners brought in broader contemporary textures.
Ruth Whitlock was born in Gary, Indiana in 1952 and developed an early passion for music that grew stronger during her teenage years through exposure to rock and folk performers of the 1960s, particularly Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Laura Nyro. After leaving home and traveling southwest with friends, she purchased an acoustic guitar at age 19 and taught herself to play. Ruth performed in coffeehouses, toured the Midwest presenting her material to widening audiences, and released two independent albums. During a stay in Norman, Oklahoma, she met Kenneth Ward; the couple later settled in Independence, Missouri. Ruth Ward kept up occasional shows but set her career aside once she and Kenneth had their first child. The Wards raised three children, though only the youngest, Madisen Ward, born in 1988, inherited his mother’s drive to create music.
Following the same path, Madisen took up guitar at age 19 and soon began playing coffeehouses and acoustic rooms in Independence as well as St. Louis, three hours away. He shared Ruth’s strong voice and songwriting ability, and the two often sat at the kitchen table strumming guitars, harmonizing, and trading song ideas. Over time Ruth started joining Madisen’s coffeehouse appearances, and he likewise sat in with her.
Billing themselves as Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear, the duo built a local following in Kansas City by 2013 and recorded the independent EP We Burned the Cane Fields, which received airplay on regional roots-music radio programs. In 2014 they were invited to perform at the Americana Music Association’s annual Americana Fest in Nashville, Tennessee that September. A showcase at the offices of Jack White’s Third Man Records drew attention from journalists and industry observers, among them Adam Gold of Rolling Stone. The magazine listed the set among the “20 Best Things We Saw at Americana Music Fest,” and Gold observed, “the duo’s raw, inscrutable chemistry was in full effect as they handily made a case as an inevitable force to be reckoned with in the days to come.” The positive notice led to an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman, and by the close of 2014 Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear signed with Glassnote Records. Their debut album, Skeleton Crew, was released in May 2015. In 2018 the pair issued the six-song EP The Radio Winners, which broadened their sound through more elaborate production and work with outside songwriters.
Ruth Whitlock was born in Gary, Indiana in 1952 and developed an early passion for music that grew stronger during her teenage years through exposure to rock and folk performers of the 1960s, particularly Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Laura Nyro. After leaving home and traveling southwest with friends, she purchased an acoustic guitar at age 19 and taught herself to play. Ruth performed in coffeehouses, toured the Midwest presenting her material to widening audiences, and released two independent albums. During a stay in Norman, Oklahoma, she met Kenneth Ward; the couple later settled in Independence, Missouri. Ruth Ward kept up occasional shows but set her career aside once she and Kenneth had their first child. The Wards raised three children, though only the youngest, Madisen Ward, born in 1988, inherited his mother’s drive to create music.
Following the same path, Madisen took up guitar at age 19 and soon began playing coffeehouses and acoustic rooms in Independence as well as St. Louis, three hours away. He shared Ruth’s strong voice and songwriting ability, and the two often sat at the kitchen table strumming guitars, harmonizing, and trading song ideas. Over time Ruth started joining Madisen’s coffeehouse appearances, and he likewise sat in with her.
Billing themselves as Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear, the duo built a local following in Kansas City by 2013 and recorded the independent EP We Burned the Cane Fields, which received airplay on regional roots-music radio programs. In 2014 they were invited to perform at the Americana Music Association’s annual Americana Fest in Nashville, Tennessee that September. A showcase at the offices of Jack White’s Third Man Records drew attention from journalists and industry observers, among them Adam Gold of Rolling Stone. The magazine listed the set among the “20 Best Things We Saw at Americana Music Fest,” and Gold observed, “the duo’s raw, inscrutable chemistry was in full effect as they handily made a case as an inevitable force to be reckoned with in the days to come.” The positive notice led to an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman, and by the close of 2014 Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear signed with Glassnote Records. Their debut album, Skeleton Crew, was released in May 2015. In 2018 the pair issued the six-song EP The Radio Winners, which broadened their sound through more elaborate production and work with outside songwriters.
Albums