Healing Through Song

Morgan Wade makes soundwaves about triumphing over addiction.

Jace Kartye

“Music has such a powerful way of reminding us we’re not alone,” says Floyd-based singer-songwriter Morgan Wade, 26. For her debut album, Reckless (2021), she collaborated with Grammy Award-winners Paul Ebersold and Sadler Vaden to create a song cycle about the realities of getting high and, finally, getting sober.

With a voice that’s rough and full of smoke, the raw emotion in Wade’s music struck a chord, landing Reckless on countless “best of” lists—from Rolling Stone to The New York Times. She first took the stage at 19. And following her journey to sobriety, she now plays to sold-out venues internationally. In March, Wade appeared on London’s The O2 stage for the European Country- 2Country Festival. By July, she was home playing FloydFest.

In the lead-up to her latest EP, The Acoustic Sessions, released in August, Wade told fans, “We shouldn’t make excuses for why we do things, just be yourself. For me, that’s my music.” Her current U.S. tour has taken her from Pennsylvania’s Hersheypark Stadium, to MVP Arena in Albany, and Mile 0 Fest in Key West. But she’ll be home in Virginia on November 17, playing a sold-out show at Roanoke’s Jefferson Cente, but will be playing in D.C. on February 21 and at Richmond’s The National on April 16. MorganWadeMusic.com

Konstantin Rega
Konstantin Rega is the former digital editor of Virginia Living. A graduate of East Anglia’s creative writing program and the University of Kent, he is now the digital content producer at the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. He has been published by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Poetry Salzburg Review, Publishers Weekly, and Treblezine.
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