The Life of a Song

iTunes Review

Joey and Rory Feek are a husband-and-wife duo who first performed together on the 2008 season of CMT's television show Can You Duet. They placed third but won over enough fans for Sugar Hill Records to give them a shot. The Life of a Song is an impressive debut crafted with catchy songs steeped in rootsy country rock and classic ballads overflowing with the kinds of romantically close harmonies influenced by Emmylou Harris's tenure with Gram Parsons. The duo even pays loving tribute to the first lady of cosmic American music on the moving "Sweet Emmylou." The opening cut "Play the Song" sounds equally timeless, but it moves with a sultry roadhouse slither, leaning harder on honky-tonk with lyrics that jab at modern country's penchant for watering down the twang to seep into adult contemporary radio. "Cheater, Cheater" is another standout tune with hilariously catty lyrics. These songs don't sound ageless and contagious by accident. Shortly after moving to Nashville in 1995, Rory Feek became the sole staff writer for legendary tunesmith Harlan Howard before working for Clint Black's Blacktop Music. And Joey cut her teeth singing Dolly Parton's "Coat of Many Colors" at a talent show in her first-grade class.