How They Duet

After wide exposure on a TV talent show, JOEY and RORY FEEK mix marriage and music with great success

Television has always been a powerful force in bringing musical artists to the attention of the public. In the 1950s and 60s, it was an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show that could bring masses to the record store. Today, prime drivers of recorded music sales are the musical reality programs: American Idol and its country cousins, Can You Duet? and Nashville Star. Can You Duet? turned out to be the launching pad for rising husband-and-wife Country duo Joey + Rory, whose debut album, The Life of a Song (Sugar Hill/Vanguard) was released last fall. The pair's first single, "Cheater, Cheater," a sassy, acoustic novelty on infidelity, was a big-selling chart single.

Rory Feek, a veteran Music Row songwriter, is still amazed by the success he and his wife, vocalist Joey Martin, have enjoyed as artists. "I never aspired to be more than a husband and a songwriter," says Feek. "I was a 42 year-old wearing overalls when we were cast on the Can You Duet? TV show. The marketability factor for Joey and me as a husband and wife duo -- we'd have been laughed out of every office on Music Row. But the TV audience looks deeper than that – do we like these people; are they genuine; are they talented?" The following Joey + Rory gained from the television show was enhanced by their being at the center of a TV ad campaign by Overstock.com, which focused on the Feeks' real lives and aspirations.

One of the ingredients behind the success of The Life of a Song is the fact that its lyrical content reflects what is genuinely important to Joey and Rory. There are several Western-themed songs, which were inspired, says Joey, by her lifelong fascination with cowboys and horses. "I may have these ideas or concepts I want to write about and Rory is the perfect person to help craft those and mold those into songs." Rory has his own theory about what works in creating songs: "When you're a songwriter, you're supposed to show up every day and write a love song that is different from all the other love songs that have been written over the last hundred years and that's tough. But Joey and I really tried to make this an album filled with songs that say stuff about us."
–Jim Steinblatt