Hailing from a small town in Alberta, Canada, Mackenzie Porter has had quite the career already as both an actress and a singer/songwriter. Mackenzie played a lead role in the sci-fi series Travelers and has appeared in music videos such as I Was Jack and You Were Diane with Jake Owen and also Dustin Lynch’s Thinking ‘bout You in which she is also Lynch’s duet partner in the actual song.

Mackenzie Porter and her husband Jake Etheridge (TV’s Nashville) have recently welcomed their first baby, a girl named Bowen. So not only has Mackenzie been busy creating and releasing her debut album but also enjoying life as a new mum and facing all kinds of new challenges.

Mackenzie’s much anticipated debut album Nobody’s Born With a Broken Heart is released today! An album filled with gloriously addictive tracks, this album has been almost six years in the making due to Porter’s acting work and covid stalling things somewhat. Whilst it may been six years in the making, the hard work behind the album is obvious! Each song stands out as a single with country radio appeal! The album focuses on various stages and feelings of break ups and heartbreak. We spoke to Mackenzie about the album last week, read our interview here.

“Every time I tell people that [the album is about heartbreak], they’re like, ‘well, you’re in a relationship and you’re happy.’ I am, of course, but there’s a lot of different elements of heartbreak in life.”

The songs speak of getting over past loves, comparing new relationships to the first love and of being naive as a young woman moving to Nashville for the first time. “I’m a dramatic person by nature, so when I think about writing, I go back to those moments of being hurt that I remember so viscerally, and that’s how the songs come out.”

The album kicks off to a great start with Easy to Miss. A very smart choice, it’s a high quality track all round and brings me back to the days of when I fell in love with country pop music in the first place and when my entire day would be taken up by the likes of Cassadee Pope and more. A bop that deserves to be fairing high in the country music charts, the song may be upbeat but speaks of sad moments of the aftermath of a break up! We can all relate to that right?

Crank the music up loud when listening to the sassy Bet You Break My Heart as it is a song that screams summer anthem. Continue the party with Have Your Beer where you will find yourself jumping around and dancing in no time. Sing obnoxiously loud to Chasing Tornadoes with its delightful and fun melody and feel the energy of the dark twisting and traditional sounding Rough Ride for a Cowboy which holds elements of an early Carrie Underwood.

Inspiration comes from the anthemic Coming Home to You. A favourite for us, it’s a song about being happy in the life and in the relationship you have and being comfortable in the fact that there will always be people who you think are better off but really, are they?

There’s always gonna be bigger houses
Longer driveways with nicer cars
There’s always gonna be whiter fences
Redder roses in a greener yard
Most people would kill for a higher up hill
Looking down on a better view
But I don’t want no bigger house if
I ain’t coming home to you

Wrong One Yet is a sweet sounding, honey vocaled song where you hear Mackenzie calling or writing a letter to her mum about being optimistic yet a little bit cautious in a new relationship and being well aware it may end at any moment as she’s used to running away from relationships!

Nightingale is another one of the more traditional country sounding songs off of the album. A story telling song, the words speak of innocence and the first days of moving to Nashville and being wide eyed and naive.

The song is about “being that girl who is so naive and like wholeheartedly doesn’t question what she is doing, her heart or her voice, that’s kind of the song. For me, going through ten years of being in this town and kind of like being beaten down a little bit which everybody goes through in this industry. It makes you question what you are saying in your music or your art. You kind of start carrying around the scars from that and that song is about wanting to be this girl that first moved to Nashville and never listened to what anybody else said and never questioned what she was making. That is who I kind of want to try to be again when I am making music!”

With the majority of tracks co-written by Mackenzie Porter there are few that are outside songs. One of the outside songs is the stunning ballad Pay Me Back In Change. Easily one of the most beautiful tracks from the album, Porter says “Pay Me Back In Change’ “ (Emma Klein) wrote it by herself and I heard it and I was like “I really need this song on my record so much”. So we just asked her “can I cut this song? It feels like something that means a lot to me, I have been in this situation before and I think it’s beautifully written” I wanted to put my voice on it and my sound.”

The breathtaking and emotional moments continue in other ballads such as Confession, Sucker Punch and the closer and title track Nobody’s Born With a Broken Heart! A real power ballad moment about never truly getting over a first love, Confession is a tearjerker! Sucker Punch is infused with a range of instruments such as Pedal Steel and Fiddle which write the feelings of pain well in their individual melodies. Nobody’s Born With a Broken Heart is the perfect close to a sublime album.

“I already knew the closing would be the title track of the record (Nobody’s Born With a Broken Heart). Lyrically that kind of sums up the record and it ends on this line that says “maybe this love will put back the parts because nobody’s born with a broken heart”. The idea of like there’s hope and that this love of my daughter will heal a lot of parts in myself that are broken. I knew that was going to be the way that I wanted this project to wrap up because I felt that wrapped it up.”

Nobody’s Born With a Broken Heart paints a picturesque journey of heartbreak in a series of songs that are painfully relatable but also lead you onto the road of self healing! A voice that offers comfort and familiarity, Porter’s range is exceedingly good with a real gift of bringing each character to life in every detailed story!

The is just the beginning of what we believe will be an incredible career for Mackenzie within the country music world. It may have been an album that was six years in the making but the wait was worth it!

EASY TO MISS Written by Hillary Lindsey, Emily Warren, Will Weatherly

YOUNG AT HEART Written by Tofer Brown, Lauren Hungate, Emily Weisband

BET YOU BREAK MY HEART Written by Mark Holman, Chris Tompkins, Travis Wood

PAY ME BACK IN CHANGE Written by Emma Klein

ROUGH RIDE FOR A COWBOY Written by MacKenzie Porter, Lauren Hungate, Luke Niccoli, Lydia Vaughan

COMING HOME TO YOU Written by Tofer Brown, Lauren Hungate, Caroline Watkins, Emily Weisband

STRONG THINGS Written by MacKenzie Porter, John Byron, Jacob Durrett, Lauren LaRue

CONFESSION Written by MacKenzie Porter, Emma-Lee, Karen Kosowski

WRONG ONE YET Written by Blake Pendergrass, Josh Thompson, Lauren Watkins

PICKUP Written by MacKenzie Porter, Will Bundy, Lydia Vaughan

NIGHTINGALE Written by MacKenzie Porter, Mark Trussell, Parker Welling

HAVE YOUR BEER Written by MacKenzie Porter, Jason Massey, Lydia Vaughan, Parker Welling

SUCKER PUNCH Written by MacKenzie Porter, Tommy English, Nick Long

WALK AWAY Written by MacKenzie Porter, Chris DeStefano, Jon Nite

FORECLOSURE Written by Jared Hampton, Harper O’Neill, Vinnie Paolizzi, Ash Ruder

LESS IS MORE Written by Devin Dawson, Zachary Kale, Jon Nite

ALONG THOSE LINES Written by Rocky Block, Blake Pendergrass

CHASING TORNADOES Written by Emily Landis, Jamie Moore, Lainey Wilson

NOBODY’S BORN WITH A BROKEN HEART Written by MacKenzie Porter, Luke Niccoli, Lydia Vaughan, Parker Welling