Joey + Rory Have Their Priorities Straight

Husband and wife duo Joey & Rory might look like newlyweds or honeymooners, but they began their lives together long ago, and they’re still continuing to share the excitement of recent success.

Over the past 18 months, they’ve become the spokespersons for Overstock.com, finalists on season one of CMT’s Can You Duet and landed their first record deal together on Sugar Hill Records.

Their 2008 debut album, Life of a Song, produced singles like “Cheater, Cheater” and “Play the Song.” But despite all the success, the singer-songwriters have remained sincere, authentic and humble.

"Gosh, if we move away from that, why are we even here?" Rory told CMT.com during a recent interview in Nashville after he and his wife finished touring the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee. "They [fans] always respond to authenticity and genuineness."

The pair recently partnered with CMT One Country to assist charitable organizations like Second Harvest. In addition, part of the profits from their holiday single, "It's Christmas Time," will be donated to help fight hunger. The couple is personally affected by the fight as Rory's brother lives at the mission and gets food from Second Harvest.

"I think for us it was just important that we reach out, especially during the holiday season, to try and have the proceeds of what we're doing go to help people who are hungry," Joey explained. "It's an awful thing to be hungry."

Rory said he felt inspired to write "It's Christmas Time" one morning while visiting his wife's childhood home in Indiana.

"I just got all choked up and teary-eyed," Joey said of the first time her husband sang the song for her. "It painted a picture of what my childhood Christmases were like."

"It's about Christ and Christmas," Rory added. "Our faith is real important to us, and this is the time of year where you have so many different things coming at you that it's easy to lose focus. For us, personally, at the end of the day, that's what it's about. And the song, it helps us, too, to remember what's most important."

In addition to writing their Christmas single, Rory also co-produced and co-wrote a project with producer Tim Johnson as part of a group made up of experienced songwriters in Nashville called the Song Trust. The project, Merry Kidsmas, is an album sung solely by children; a portion of the proceeds will benefit the United Service Organizations (USO).

Joey & Rory have also been busy finishing up their sophomore album, due out next April. Joey described their upcoming new music as having a sound that's "very acoustic" and "a little bluegrassy." While the album will be similar to their first, Rory will be featured more as a vocalist on the new music.
"Of the entire record," she said, "that's what I'm most excited about -- for people to hear how wonderful of a singer my husband is."

Joey & Rory are still taking a stand on defending traditional Country Music. This stance manifested itself last year at an awards show. Before taking the stage, Rory grabbed a white-out pen and scrawled a message on the front of his guitar. He felt the awards show was more about the production rather than the music and wrote the words "We Miss Country Music" on the front of his guitar.

"I know there's room for all that," he explained of the show's production. "And there are lots of people who love it. It's not our favorite, and so I think that caused us to grab some white-out and make a statement.”

"That's not a statement for TV," he reiterated. "We've never taken it off, and we feel that way. In some small way, we feel like we get to try every day to play a role -- or try to play a role -- in bringing some of that back."