Depending on the game, an Ace can be the highest or lowest card, zero or infinity. A breakup feels similar—one path crumbles, while all others remain infinitely possible. How do you write about heartbreak when you’re going through it? Ace, GRAMMY award-winner Madison Cunningham’s third record for Verve Forecast, tracks every part of it: falling out of love, having your heart broken, and then falling in love again. Recently off the road with Mumford & Sons on their “Railroad Revival” Tour, the renowned guitarist and true artist’s artist steps into her own lane with Ace. Co-produced by Cunningham and Robbie Lackritz (Feist, Rilo Kiley, Bahamas, Peach Pit), the fourteen-track album is honest and full of heart, even as it breaks. Named by Hozier as one of the “most talented creative forces of our generation,” Madison Cunningham is a singer-songwriter and guitarist with two previous albums on Verve Forecast, Who Are You Now (2019) and Revealer (2022), which won the GRAMMY for “Best Folk Album.” She’s collaborated as a guitarist and as a vocalist with countless artists: Lucy Dacus, Remi Wolf, Mumford & Sons, Lucius, and Andrew Bird, among others. Ace was an ensemble effort. Her bandmates here are musicians with whom she has worked for years, who helped sharpen her vision into something that feels alive in all the ways Cunningham hoped when she started writing.