Madison McFerrin / Cleo Reed

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Event Dates
Red Room at Cafe 939
939 Boylston Street
Boston
Massachusetts
02115
United States

Madison McFerrin, an independent singer-songwriter based in New York City, has been described by the New York Times as “showing wonderful vocal dexterity, deftly swerving from sharp, clearly enunciated staccato bursts to fluttery, free-form melismata.”

In December 2016, she quietly introduced her soulful take on a cappella when she self-released Finding Foundations: Vol. I. After one listen, DJ Gilles Peterson snatched up her standout track, “No Time to Lose,” for his Brownswood Bubblers compilation. In February 2018, she gave listeners more of her distinctive sound—one that Questlove dubbed “soul-appella”—when she self-released Finding Foundations: Vol. II.

After her SXSW debut last year, legendary DJ Anne Litt noted, “There’s some sort of joy and beauty in the way that she performs that really drew me in all that much more.” Pitchfork Magazine declared, “Madison McFerrin is making a cappella cool again.”

With atmospheric, smoky vocals and in-house writing and production, Cleo Reed is the genre-bending future of alternative R&B. Hailing from Washington, D.C., and New York City, Reed has dedicated time to being a DJ and playing bass and vocals for Pretty Sick, an all-female dream punk band. While creating music with Pretty Sick, Reed simultaneously released the single “Drive Me Down,” her first independent project under the name Ella.

By the end of summer 2018, Reed released her first debut single, an A-side/B-side track called “Vulnerable / Change My Mind.” Reed is completing her coursework at Berklee College of Music, where she is studying electronic production and design.