Morgan Wade has always marched to the beat of her own, wildly unique, drum, a characteristic that has never been more evident than in the release of her debut album, Reckless. The 10-track project, with Wade writing or co-writing all of the songs, is a powerful illustration to country music — and the world — that Wade is unafraid.
“We were going to do an EP. That had been the plan,” Wade tells Everything Nash. “I got with 30 Tigers, and they’re like, ‘Let’s just go out with the full LP, which is good, because I don’t know what songs we would have picked just for that. But they’re like, ‘Let’s do the LP.”
Wade planned on releasing Reckless in 2020, but the pandemic altered many of those plans.
“It doesn’t feel like I’m going to get to release it this week because it just feels like every time we had planned to release it, then we had to push it back a little bit. So I’m just waiting on them to call me today and be like, ‘Let’s push it back a couple of weeks.’ But I’m excited. This record has been done for a year. We finished it right before the shutdown, so it’s kind of like hearing it for the first time myself, because I haven’t been listening to it.”
Wade’s current single is “Wilder Days,” which she wrote with Sadler Vaden.
“The whole idea of that song was just the fact that the timing can suck meeting someone,” Wade shares. “Right person, wrong time, and meeting somebody that you’re like, ‘Man, if we had met a couple of years ago, back when you were a little crazier, this really would have worked, but we’re both in two different places right now, so let’s just enjoy it while we can, but it’s not gonna happen. It’s not going to be a real thing.’ So that was the whole idea of that song.”
Wade seems born to be an artist, but that wasn’t her original plan. The Virginia native initially planned on going into the medical field, before her love of music prevailed.
“I love playing music and writing, but that was just for me,” Wade explains. “I didn’t share that side of myself. I literally thought that I was going to be a cardiothoracic Physician’s Assistant. That was my plan. That was before the tattoos and the rock and roll music. I was a much different individual back then, but that stuff still interests me. But obviously, I’m never going to be cutting anybody’s chest.”
Wade is covered in tattoos, just one of the ways she illustrates she is not willing to be anybody but herself. In an era where female artists still struggle to be heard as much as their male counterparts, Wade has the fire and drive in her to forge her own way, even if she has to work harder than anyone else.
“I’m honestly more motivated,” Wade maintains. “I feel like I stick out a little bit. I’m not typical, and I’m fine with it. I feel like things are changing, and they’re getting more recognition for sure, in music. And so, I’m looking forward to being a part of working to put more females on the radio and in country music and all that stuff. I think you gotta be challenged a little bit. It’ll push you more.”
Reckless is available via her website.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of EB Media / David McClister
