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Rising star is set to return to the stage with an Upstate Unplugged performance on Thursday, April 24
ALBANY—There’s a moment that still surprises Margo Macero. One of those rare, out-of-body realizations where the art hits back just as hard as it’s given. She was onstage performing Patsy Cline’s “Sweet Dreams (Of You),” a song she’d heard countless times in her father’s car as a child, when something inside her shifted.
“I honestly scared myself,” she said. “I listened back to it later, and just thought, ‘That came out of me?’ It hit something I’ve never really touched before.”
That moment, raw and unfiltered, is a fitting metaphor for where Macero finds herself now: on the edge of a new chapter, shaped by heartbreak and resilience, and pushing her sound further than ever before. When she takes the stage for Upstate Unplugged on Thursday, April 24, she’ll be performing selections from her forthcoming album—a project born not only of songwriting but of self-discovery, grief, and artistic reinvention.
The album will be her first full-length project in years, a body of work that draws from a wide swath of influences: rock, blues, jazz, and most poignantly, country. The country element, once a complicated presence in her life, has returned in full force, largely as a spiritual connection to her late mother.
“When my parents divorced, my mom didn’t want to hear any music that reminded her of my dad,” Macero said. “But she played country, all the time. Shania, Reba, Tim McGraw, and always Patsy. After she passed away, it was hard to hear it. But something happened recently. I started singing it again. And I didn’t expect to feel so close to her through that.”
That connection, long dormant, unlocked something new in Macero’s vocal expression. She speaks often about tone and projection. Not just singing notes but inhabiting emotion. In performing Cline, she found a well of vulnerability and strength that’s helping shape her sound.
“There’s something about the way Patsy sang with confidence and heartbreak,” she said. “I connect to that now in a way I didn’t before. That kind of slow, sentimental feeling. It’s where I’m most comfortable.”
The upcoming album is steeped in those themes: loss, perseverance, and the complicated reclamation of one’s voice. Songs like “Runaway” and “Life on a Timeline” reflect her internal grappling with identity and self-worth, particularly as someone who has spent years performing in spaces where being seen didn’t always mean being known.
“Sometimes I walk into a room and people say my name, but they don’t really know who I am,” she said. “But the moment I step on stage, I feel at home. That’s when I know I’m supposed to be there.”
There’s also a defiant side to the record. One that emerges from what Macero calls her “alter ego.” After years of emotional suppression and quietly moving forward, she’s using the music to step into a bolder version of herself.
“It’s the part of me that says, ‘I’ve been walked on. I’ve been quiet. And now I’m not,’” she said. “There’s strength in that.”
That contrast—soft-spoken offstage, firebrand onstage—is central to who she is as an artist. She talks about red as a thematic color: passion, heat, pressure. Her live performances are where those elements fuse. Though reserved in conversation, she describes her onstage presence as something closer to combustion.
“I blast around the stage like a slinky,” she joked. “It’s hard to contain.”
That tension—between control and freedom, vulnerability and ferocity—threads throughout her collaborations as well. The album is co-written and shaped with help from Bridge Road Entertainment’s Jocelyn & Chris, a partnership that she describes as honest, dynamic, and refreshingly unafraid to toss songs that don’t hit the mark.
“When something’s good, we all kind of laugh,” she said. “It’s like, ‘Where did that come from?’”
The songwriting process has also been deeply personal, incorporating contributions from her girlfriend, Brianna Underwood. “Hard Hitter,” a standout track on the upcoming album, was born from a casual exchange of lyrics: “Mama didn’t raise no quitter.”
While the album isn’t a strict concept record, many of the tracks explore personal growth through narrative. Songs that tell full stories rather than emotional snapshots. And it’s clear that Macero is thinking about this moment in her life, not just in terms of songs, but of legacy.
“I’ve always known I was meant to perform,” she said. “When I was seven, I told my dad I wanted a rocking guitar and an airplane. I still think about that.”
Her performance on Upstate Unplugged is the next step in that journey. A moment that strips away the noise and lets the songs breathe. And though she jokes about possibly being too loud for the quiet-room format, she’s excited to bring this new chapter to life in an intimate setting.
“As long as they forgive me if my guitar’s too loud,” she said, grinning. “That space—where people are really listening—that’s everything.”
