Maggie Rose – No One Gets Out Alive

I was introduced to Maggie Rose at the Sacred Rose Festival (Chicago) in the summer of 2022. I found her an engaging performer. However, she was a bit hard to categorize: Was she country, Americana, soul, pop, or rock? After seeing her live, I checked out her recordings, which were meh. When No One Gets Out Alive came out in April of 2024, I gave it a listen on streaming, and I was instantly smitten. It was a throwback to the late 70s Laurel Canyon singer-songwriter vibe I grew up on. I have consistently returned to the album since it was released, and it will be on my Top-10 for 2024. It recently received a Grammy nomination for best Americana album.

Rose has a great voice (I would put it in the Linda Ronstadt category of greatness), but the magic here is in combining her powerhouse vocals with great songs and gorgeous and rich arrangements.

The album is produced by Muscle Shoals FAME-trained producer, audio engineer, mixer, and musician Ben Tanner. The band on the album is 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), keyboardist Kaitlyn Connor and guitarist Kyle Lewis from Rose’s band. I can’t emphasize the great sound that comes out of this ensemble.

In a Billboard article shortly after the album’s release, Rose says: “The theme of this record is using this finite amount of time well while we have it.” According to Billboard, she was in a reflective mood as she wrote and recorded the dynamic work, having gone through the pandemic, seen some friendships come to their natural conclusion, and lost her best friend’s dad to cancer. “All these things that made me feel connected to my community were gone,” she says.

The album has no bad tracks, but if you have commitment issues and only want to listen to one song, I recommend the first/titular track: “No One Gets Alive.”

If you are a fan of Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Dusty Springfield, Shelby Lynn, and ambitious studio arrangements, you will like this album. In the late 1970s, this would have been a hit album.