Nashville-based rock and soul singer Maggie Rose invites the listener into her world as an independent artist in the male-dominated, often volatile, music industry. Maggie hosts candid conversations with her female musical heroes about their lives in and out of music, challenging the status quo, and changing the game for those coming up behind them. June special guest, Joy Oladokun Live podcast taped in front of live audience and live-streamed on Volume.com MAGGIE ROSE Hailed for her "multi-genre talents" by Billboard and deemed a "star" by Rolling Stone, acclaimed singer-songwriter Maggie Rose has released her ambitious new album No One Gets Out Alive. Hearkening back to early '70s Laurel Canyon, the music deals in both dark and uplifting themes- disillusionment in relationships, ageism, female empowerment and living in the moment, among them, with Maggie's big, soulful voice taking center stage. Maggie successfully straddles the worlds of pop, rock, soul, Americana and folk, unencumbered by genre specifics. Recorded with a dream team including members of Jason Isbell's 400 Unit, Alabama Shakes and Gregg Allman's band, the record was produced by GRAMMY-Award winner Ben Tanner, mixed by Bobby Holland and arranged by conductor Don Hart (Phish, Lyle Lovett). A respected fixture of the Nashville community, Maggie has played the iconic Grand Ole Opry over 100 times and marquee festivals including Austin City Limits, Bonnaroo, and Newport Folk Fest. A true road warrior, she has shared the stage with the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Heart, Joan Jett, Eric Church, Gov't Mule, The Mavericks, Fitz & The Tantrums, St. Paul & The Broken Bones and The Revivalists among others. JOY OLADOKUN Joy Oladokun gets emails. She meets people. There are DMs. Fans of the Arizona-bred singer-songwriter express how they feel before and after seeing one of her shows. Some say they have entered her gigs feeling depressed, unseen and scared, but they leave in a different headspace entirely — upbeat, acknowledged, more confident. Others explain that seeing people like themselves onstage—Black, queer, funny, all of the above — inspires them. With her seemingly bottomless well of melodies and conversational couplets, her inviting buoyancy and infectious guffaw, Joy Oladokun is a human mood elevator. “I think that's beautiful,” she says of receiving these missives. So beautiful in fact that Oladokun decided that she wanted to get in on that action and craft an album “that was a version of what I've been able to give to other people for myself.” Enter Observations From a Crowded Room, a 15 track collection of 12 songs and 3 interludes, written, produced, and largely performed by Oladokun, which build on and expand her pop-folk sonic palette with electronic flourishes and lush harmonies. The record was created at a critical juncture in Oladokun’s life. She was assessing her perch in the world and the industry after the success of previous albums (2021’s in defense of my own happiness and 2023’s Proof of Life) garnered universal high praise, a slew of famous fans and collaborators like Sheryl Crow, Jason Isbell, Noah Kahan and Chris Stapleton, sold out headlining tour dates and opening slots with John Mayer and Hozier. It also invited scrutiny. She began questioning whether she should pursue something else. “I think for me it was a pivotal moment of thinking, ‘I don't know what good there is in this for me anymore. I know what it does for my management. I know what it does for the fans. But I don't know what good this is for my heart and my head anymore,’" she recalls of the bleak place in which she began to find herself. Then she started recording Observations From a Crowded Room. “This album became a way for me to write things, feel things, process things,” she says. “Because, as the producer, I just had to sit with these songs for so long. It became really healing in a sense of, ‘I made this. I'm listening to an album that I genuinely love. All the sounds and bits and bobs came from me with the help of just an engineer.’ It was transformative. So it started out as, ‘I quit,’ and it has ended up as a fresh start.” “I used music to dig myself out of that hopeless headspace and land at a place that if my career ends tomorrow, for whatever reason, I made this record, I made the other records that I'm so proud of,” she shares. “And I did it in a way that was true to me, and now in a way that feels sustainable to me.”