Maggie Rose Picks Her 5 Favorite Songs From New Album, 'No One Gets Out Alive'

On No one gets out alivesinger-songwriter Maggie Rose sends a message.

“This record is about making good use of this finite time while we have it,” he says of the recently released project. She was in a reflective mood as she wrote and recorded the powerful piece, having lived through the pandemic, seen some friendships come to their natural end, and lost her best friend's dad to cancer. “All those things that made me feel connected to my community were gone,” she says.

With its folk-pop-soul, acoustic production and Rose's expressive, smoky vocals, the album recalls works by Bonnie Raitt, Yola and Dusty Springfield.

Rose says she's not necessarily thinking about what listeners will learn about her from listening to the album, but instead what they'll learn about themselves: “I think I have a very strong belief in myself and what I do,” she says. “[It’s] not as much as I want them to know about me, but hopefully they'll learn from it.”

Produced by Ben Tanner, album guitarist Sadler Vaden and drummer Chad Gamble from Jason Isbell's 400 Unit, keyboardist Peter Levin (Amanda Shires, Gregg Allman), bassist Zac Cockrell (Alabama Shakes) and keyboardist Kaitlyn Connor and guitarist Kyle Lewis from Rose's band. “I believed in it Field of Dreams idea to build it and they will come,” he says, of assembling the players.

Rose, who released her first album in 2009, delivered the full-length to Big Loud Records, which changed nothing, including the lineup. “I'm not jaded by any means, but it wasn't what I expected to be offered a label on Music Row and fully embrace what I was doing,” she says. “I think this is a testament to Big Loud and how forward-thinking and artists they are. But all the reticence I had just from operating around Music Row for so long all disappeared just because I felt like they really understood me. This is the collaboration I've been waiting for.”

Rose has played the Grand Ole Opry 106 times, and if the gatekeepers of mainstream country music haven't yet embraced her, she feels perfectly welcome on this storied stage. “I think it speaks to all the different iterations of what the Nashville music scene is,” he says. “The fact that the Grand Ole Opry has been around for almost 100 years is probably because they're malleable and try to adapt, and also be progressive and cast a little wider net than maybe our friends in country radio do. I don't know that my music is a bullseye for what you would normally expect to hear at the Grand Ole Opry, but I feel very much a part of a community that I want to see continue for another 100 years.”

Below, Rose picks her five favorite tracks from the new album — though she admits her top picks can change every day — with explanations in her own words for each pick.

“No One Gets Out Alive”

The title itself: If you just listen to “No One Gets Out Alive,” it sounds really ominous and dark. When you listen to the whole song, it's anything but. It's really promising. I had this title floating around in my head. I knew the day I wrote that song with Sunny Sweeney and Natalie Hemby that I'd probably end up calling the album that — just because I'd already written some other songs about going with what you need and getting an edge of the time you have. I let go of some feelings that were holding me back creatively and keeping me from living to my fullest potential and getting all the joy I can from what we do.

I wanted this really dramatic ending, and I was actually kind of scared of it. I said to Ben Tanner, “People are going to think I'm being too dramatic or over the top with this.” And he says, “You deserve to get into this theater and drama. This is the song”. There is an emergency. It is demanding that people live in the present right now.

“Mad Love” (feat. John Paul White)

“Mad Love” and “No One Gets Out Alive” are a bit like twin songs. Each song has its own little equivalent that it belongs to. 'Mad Love' has the same cinematic Tarantino feel as the 'Alive' soundtrack. It was almost like I was trying to manifest this character that was a little braver than I was at the time. I'm like, that's Beatrix Kiddo Kill Bill and pretends to step into that role. And maybe if I write that story and create that person in that persona, I can fulfill it and live up to it. I love performing this song. He just likes me [Lee] Hazelwood/Nancy Sinatra, spaghetti western vibes. And it also fits with the theme of relationships running, and owning some of that anger and moving on from it.

I love John Paul White. It has the haunting melody/harmony down. I thought, “What better voice than John Paul's to have on a song like 'Mad Love'?” And I didn't even tell him what parts to sing. He's just doing his thing. It really adds that fantastical beauty to the song that I love.

“Fake flowers”

I wrote it with Chuck Harmony and Claude Kelly, who have become very good friends of mine. It was probably one of the first songs I had written when I started to realize that there's an album starting to galvanize here. Chuck and Claude are known for writing these huge, diva pop tunes and have written for Christina Aguilera, Miley Cyrus, Whitney Houston and Britney Spears. We probably did nine tries, just the three of us, for songs to be contenders for this record and “Fake Flowers” ​​was one of them.

I felt like I was owning my anger, which isn't necessarily something women are always encouraged to do. It's something I really look forward to during the live show, because it's so dynamic and has [these] kind of scary, familiar lyrics and then this blasting Motown chorus where it kind of mimes. I love it when the music and emotion of a song can really marry so well together. I love the thought of writing it with them and knowing that the three of us really had something special.

“Very young”

The song I wrote with Natalie Hemby is about age. Natalie and I both drew from our similar experiences of moving to Nashville as teenagers. Knowing that we were talented, knowing that we have good people or established people around us and that things are going well, but we were kind of undermined by thinking that we didn't know what was best for us and our career. Based on that we wrote the song. Knowing that I've been in Nashville for 16 years and I was like, “Okay, I'm 35 and I'm making another record.”

I wanted to include in the end that you are never too old to chase your dreams. Nobody is. I think age is a really difficult subject to write about, but I feel like Natalie and I did a good job. And it was such an intimate day where we laughed and cried and went down memory lane of different things we had experienced throughout our careers. There was also a lot of beauty in it, and anticipation for what's to come.

We need to push against this stigma in our industry. It is ridiculous. I love hearing from artists who have been through experiences and can draw from wisdom. I feel more rooted in what I have to say now than ever before.

“Under the sun”

I love his groove. It's got that fun Fleetwood Mac feel to it, but the lyrics are this really powerful juxtaposition of sadness and the idea that we've exhausted all attempts to reconcile and it's not going to happen. There's a bit of sarcasm in it too: I guess there's nothing out there for us to bring us back together. I love when you get into a song and you think it's like this happy bop and it's revealed to you as, “Oh, this is actually really introspective and kind of sad.” It's something I'm really looking forward to playing live. The production is fun and adds a cool element to the collection of songs that makes it very well rounded.