SAN BENITO — From weekly performances and creating new material in the studio to managing every aspect of her career, country musician Madelyn Victoria Vallejo, 29, has made a name for herself in the industry.
For this San Benito musician, being on stage and performing is like her second home.
It’s a place where she feels relaxed and in her element.
However, because of nation-wide changes caused in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the singer’s upcoming events and plans momentarily paused.
When the pandemic started spreading in the U.S., a few of her shows were canceled.
In addition to affecting Vallejo’s scheduled performances, she was also in the process of releasing her upcoming album, “Senorita.”
Vallejo, said she’s sort of used to this adjustment.
Despite the shift in plans, Vallejo said the extra downtime gives her a chance to practice playing the guitar more often, gain inspiration for new songs and plan for her upcoming album.
“Now that I’m focusing on my album, the live shows have kind of plateaued a little bit only because I’m focusing on the bigger picture right now,” she explained. “I have a show about once a week or so.”
Vallejo said before working on her upcoming album, she used to perform about four to five shows a week.
“I was in the Rio Grande Valley really making a bigger name for myself,” she said. “I was opening up for bands like the Charlie Daniels Band and the Randy Rogers Band when they would go down. I share the stage with a lot of bigger names, which has given me a lot of experience.”
Because of the delays caused by the pandemic, Vallejo plans to release her upcoming album during spring 2021.
“Everything has shifted including even my final recordings,” she said. “I have all my demos done and my studio musician is ready to go, but I was supposed to finish recording at the beginning of April. Then everything got shifted so I’m actually predicting everything as far as planning goes because this is going to be a whole Texas-wide radio tour as well.”
Vallejo said she wants to make sure she doesn’t jump into anything too quickly.
“I want to kind of ease into going back into the real world and getting back into the studio. We’re probably going to go in about a month,” she said. “We’ll probably start recording the final stuff again and once that’s done it goes by a lot faster.”
Vallejo plans to have her first album release party in San Benito and another one in San Antonio.
“I recently moved up to San Antonio, but San Benito is my hometown,” she said. “I love everyone there and everyone is so supportive of me.”
Vallejo said the theme of the album is based on her roots.
“I am a country singer, but it kind of has a little Tex-Mex flare to it,” she explained. “I hope everyone can relate to it somehow with the songs that I’m releasing.”
Vallejo said she is looking forward to release her first full-length album.
“Everything’s in God’s timing because I have enough material for like three more albums, she said with a smile and a laugh. “But it has to come as it goes and we’ll see how it goes.”
Inspired passion for music
For Vallejo, family and music go hand in hand.
“When I was little, I would see all of my uncles get together. They would grab a guitar and jam out,” she said. “That’s what inspired me. I wanted to sing and make them proud.”
Vallejo said as she started getting older, she realized none of them played professionally.
To them, it was just a dream.
“I want to do this for them,” Vallejo said. “ What keeps me going is making this dream come true not just for me, but for my family and everybody that supports and believes in me.”
Vallejo said she and her family all love the same kind of music from country and rock to blues and jazz.
“The influence and the passion that they had is the same passion that I have and it’s really neat when you can share that with the people that you love,” she said. “I find it sometimes pretty rare when you have that and it’s just been a blessing for me, definitely.”
Vallejo said her album will be dedicated to her uncle Ray, who recently passed away.
“My album kind of shows dedication to my roots,” Vallejo said. “My uncle was one of my biggest fans and he taught me how to play the first chords on my guitar.”
Vallejo’s upcoming album will be available for streaming on music platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube.
Visit the musician’s website at http://madelyn-victoria.com/ to check out her music and stay up-to-date with her upcoming album.
