Max McNown

Singer/songwriter Max McNown creates the kind of songs that perfectly soundtrack our most intimate moments: times of intense heartache and tremendous loss, immense upheaval and life-changing revelation. Within just a year of teaching himself to play guitar, the Nashville-based musician turned out three EPs spotlighting his emotionally potent yet nuanced lyrics—an element beautifully displayed on his breakout single “A Lot More Free,” a track that landed on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart and greatly expanded his grassroots following. Anchored in the charmingly warm vocal presence he partly honed by busking at the beach in Southern California, McNown’s debut album Wandering brings an even deeper sense of purpose to his songwriting—and, in turn, reveals his extraordinary capacity to ease the mind and strengthen the soul.

Built on a graceful convergence of folk and country, Wandering (due out April 12) finds McNown achieving a bold new level of authenticity in his lyrical poetry. “When I’m working on a song I always ask, ‘If you stripped everything away and read it like a poem, would it still give you goosebumps?’” he says. “If you’re letting the production or the melody do all the work and there’s no real feeling there, I don’t think there’s any point.” With its title nodding to McNown’s personal journey in discovering himself through songwriting, the album also showcases the innate musicality he’s nurtured his entire life. One of five children, the Oregon native grew up in a family where singing was second nature. “Every night before bed when I was little, my Dad would sit in the hallway and play his guitar and sing until we fell asleep,” he recalls. “None of us took lessons but singing was a part of our everyday lives, and from an early age I felt a strong connection to music.” Although he was mostly raised on rock music, McNown later stumbled upon the songs of Tyler Childers and felt an immediate affinity for the raspy-voiced alt-country star and his against-the-grain sensibilities. “In all the music I’d heard before, I’d never found that type of raw emotion paired with poetry and beautiful instrumentation,” says McNown, who also lists the Lumineers and Noah Kahan among his main inspirations. “When I sang along it was the first time I sang with real confidence, and it inspired me in a whole new way.”

Despite his profound passion for music, McNown planned to pursue a career in business management after graduating high school in 2020. “Music was still what I wanted to do with my life, but it seemed like a pipe dream,” he notes. But after two years of attending college online and working at a coffee shop full-time, McNown felt undeniably compelled to make a change. “My brother has been battling lymphoma for about five years now, which is something that takes a toll on the whole family,” he says. “During lockdown I had my friends around to help me cope with everything, but when the world opened back up they all went back to their colleges. Loneliness just overwhelmed me, to the point where I felt like I was losing my mind.” In August 2022, McNown packed up his car to head for Southern California and crash with his aunt and uncle in San Clemente, then received a last-minute gift from his dad. “My car was packed so full I could barely see out of the rearview mirror, and my dad opened the door back up and handed me his guitar,” he says. “If he hadn’t done that for me, I don’t know if I would be where I am now.” 

Once he’d settled in San Clemente, McNown started studying guitar and showed a close friend a song he’d penned in high school. “I didn’t have a lot of faith in myself, but my friend encouraged me to go down to the San Clemente Pier and play that song and see what happened,” he says. “That night I made 93 bucks, and also got a free taco and a girl’s phone number folded into a $5 bill.” Soon enough, McNown began busking at the pier several times a week, earning an ardent response for his understated but impassioned covers of alt-country songs. When one of his admirers took to Facebook and posted a video of McNown performing a Zach Bryan track, he saw an instant spike in his social-media following and decided to share more of his music online.

As he racked up more and more followers on TikTok and Instagram, McNown devoted himself to developing his songcraft and sharpening his guitar skills in order to find his truest artistic voice. From there, he soon came up with his first official song, a soul-stirring single called “Freezing in November.” “It’s inspired by something my brother has told me throughout his experience with cancer—how his world can so easily get crushed by a relapse or a bad scan, but everyone else just keeps going on with their lives,” he says. Shared on social media in April 2023, “Freezing in November” surpassed a million streams in just a few months, setting McNown’s music career into unstoppable motion. With the overwhelming support and encouragement of his close-knit community of fans, McNown moved forward with his self-driven career and quickly gained major social media buzz—a turn of events that found his music making it into the hands of producers of a major talent elimination TV show who invited him to audition. Although he briefly explored the opportunity, McNown ultimately decided to launch his career on his own terms. “I was so grateful for their support and belief in me, but in the end I needed to walk my own path with my music, and it just wasn’t the right fit,” he says. After signing with Fugitive Recordings and delivering his debut EP A Lot More Free (an August 2023 release whose title track emerged as a viral hit and garnered six million streams in just four months), he returned with Can’t Hide Light in October and “Love I Got Left” in December—amassing over 22 million streams in his very first year of releasing music, all while bringing his debut album to life.

Produced by AJ Pruis (a producer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist who’s also worked with artists like Colbie Caillat, Alana Springsteen), Wandering offers up 13 lived-in songs examining everything from breakups and new love to the pain of watching his brother struggle with cancer and the confusion of finding his place in the world. While the album encompasses an intricate musical palette rich in live instrumentation (including fiddle, mandolin, Dobro, banjo, harmonica, and plenty of spellbinding guitar work), McNown took care to foreground his lyrics on every track. Recorded at The Chambers just outside of Nashville, Wandering takes its title from its closing song, the aching and confessional “Worry ‘Bout My Wandering.” “That was the most difficult song for me to write, in terms of how straightforward and personal it is,” says McNown. “It came from being far away from my family and thinking about my Mom, and wondering how she feels about my life and the direction it’s taken. After we finished it, I felt like it defined the whole album for me.” A shining example of the LP’s unfussy yet endlessly enchanting sound, “Worry ‘Bout My Wandering” unfolds in dreamy pedal-steel tones, luminous harmonies, and lyrics that channel regret, compassion, and sheer determination with an unfettered honesty (from the opening lines: “Haven’t gone to church much like I ought to/Done some things that wouldn’t make you proud/I know I haven’t had the chance to call you/The thoughts inside my head have been too loud”).

Opening on a moment of folky simplicity, Wandering begins with “Turned Into Missing You”—a tender piece of storytelling etched with indelibly lovely wordplay (e.g., “Turned on the radio and it was our song/Shoulda turned it off, but I just sang along…Turned down Haverhill Drive just like we used to/And it turned into missing you”). “I wanted to write about that feeling of driving around after a breakup and reliving memories of the person you loved,” says McNown. “Blasting music and belting songs with the windows down is a big part of my healing process, but it can definitely hurt sometimes.” With its poignant piano work and sweetly lilting mandolin solo, “Strong As Iron” presents a heavy-hearted meditation on the fragility of love. Meanwhile, on “Dead Set,” Wandering serves up a gloriously soaring, guitar-fueled anthem that speaks to the urgency of living deliberately. “Worrying about the future can cause you so much suffering, and for no good reason,” says McNown. “‘Dead Set’ is about making the decision to approach every single day like you came back to life for the specific purpose of living that day to the fullest.” Since the completion of Wandering, McNown has generated over 30 new songs, adding to a fast-growing catalog that also includes recent collaborations with artists like Eddie Flint and Grace Tyler. As he gears up for first tour and festival performances this summer, McNown notes that he’s found an essential touchstone in his own experience with the transformative power of music. “The reason I want to put my songs out into the world is I know how much music has helped me throughout my life,” he says. “Whether it was dealing with a breakup or my brother’s cancer or the troubles we all go through, music gave me hope and made me feel less alone, so now I want to return the favor.” And in wrestling with moments of self-doubt in the creative process, McNown looked back to a bit of insight shared by his mother. “When I was younger I sang around the house all the time—I’d sing in the shower or before I went to bed, I’d always sing in the car,” he says. “My mom used to tell us growing up that singing means you have a happy heart, which is where this all started for me. And even if the song’s about something difficult or painful, I still have a happy heart when I sing.”