Maggie Rose Has Mixed Feelings on Being Nashville’s ‘Best-Kept Secret’

In Nashville circles, Maggie Rose has been long regarded as one of the city’s best-kept secrets. While it sounds like a compliment, it’s a back-handed one at best, and the two-time Grammy nominee has been actively working to change that over her past few albums.

Last week, Rose dropped Half Moon, her latest and most bold step yet in joining the ranks of music’s mainstream stars — of any genre. The vocalist, who has toured, recorded, or performed with artists like Dave Matthews Band, Melissa Etheridge, Vince Gill, and My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, tells Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now how she feels when she gets that “secret” designation.

“Do I think all facets of the Nashville music industry are on display? No,” she says. “I’m making no efforts to remain a secret.”

But being based in Nashville can come with its own share of preconceived notions, Rose admits.

“I think sometimes people say, ‘Oh, she’s from Nashville, automatically let’s associate her with Americana or country. Where I think I’d be right at home with Olivia Dean and Hozier,” shey says.

“The collaborations with all these other artists in different communities is what has allowed me to glean so much knowledge and make music that, I’m hoping, is getting better and better with each project,” she continues. “But it’s a hindrance in the fact that there is rigidity to genre and playlisting and streaming and, ‘Where do we put it?’”

Rose is currently on tour in support of Half Moon and just completed a weekend of opening for Chris Stapleton. She’ll tape her first appearance on Austin City Limits on Aug. 24, and play AmericanaFest in Nashville next month, in addition to her headlining tour.

Watch her full interview on Nashville Now below.

Download and subscribe to Rolling Stone’s weekly country-music podcast, Nashville Now, hosted by Deputy Editor, Head of Country Joseph Hudak, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts). New episodes drop every Wednesday and feature interviews with artists and personalities like Shania Twain, Shaboozey, Vince Gill, Lainey Wilson, Hardy, Charley Crockett, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Kings of Leon, Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, the Black Crowes, Braxton Keith, Carly Pearce, Amy Grant, Luke Grimes, Brandon Lake, Breland, Bryan Andrews, Noeline Hofmann, Adam Mac, Devon Gilfillian, Gavin Adcock, Amanda Shires, Shooter Jennings, Margo Price, Michaela Anne, Ink, Ne-Yo, Rival Sons’ Jay Buchanan, Halestorm, Dusty Slay, Lukas Nelson, Ashley Monroe, Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor, Clever, Love on the Spectrum‘s Tyler White, Willie Nelson scholar John Spong, and authors Marissa R. Moss, Josh Crutchmer, Mark Gray, and Jonathan Bernstein.

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