Power Couples: Songwriters, Artists, Muses, and Everything in Between

My friend asked me the other night why I am so invested in the husbands or wives of the artists I follow. He continued to point out that he can care less about what his artists do in their personal lives, just as long as they produce the music he likes he is all set. This sparked an interesting discussion. For me it’s not just the music that’s produced, it is the story behind the music and the inspiration behind the song. Especially in country music (and in most genres) people write about what they know, their experiences, which usually include love and relationships. Maybe it is partly that deep down I am a romantic and my desire for a love so strong that a man will write about me gives me hope, so I live vicariously through all the amazing love stories via social media (and one by one meet them, pictures to follow). The other half of it is talent attracts talent, so a good majority of my favorites have married other really talented songwriters and/or artists. So independent of being famous by association the significant others become just as big of a star in their own right.

We have multiple types of combinations for power couples. There’s the ones where both are artists/songwriters, the ones where one is the main talent and the other is also musically talented, but is the support role and occasionally (or all the time if they are part of the band) gets on stage in a smaller capacity, and the final category are the perfect couples where one is the artist and the significant other is the muse for the beautiful love songs they write and cut. Obviously all couples I am going to cover fall in the latter category. As I mentioned before, love inspires music (whether it is the romantic kind of love or the heartbreak side of love) however you flip it, it is the drive behind the lyrics.

The oldest power couple in country music would be the legendary Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. They finally gave the world what they wanted with the joint Soul to Soul World Tour and their first collaborative album The Rest of Our Life. Perfectly released on their 26th wedding anniversary. Starring in a lot of their own music video the one most related to their journey together was The Rest of our Life track. This song is an ode to their relationship, through the test of time and no matter what life throws at them their love will stand strong. As the video depicts Tim and Faith act out a fight, but by the end of it (with Faith in the pouring rain, so cinematic) they still run to each other. As the lyric also illustrates “if one gray hair shows, I’ll be fine//If my waistline grows, I’ll be fine//Even if time takes its toll//We’ll stay young for the rest of our lives”. Obviously both Tim and Faith are in it for the long haul, and also are defying the laws of aging because neither of them are letting their waistline go anytime soon, both are in absolutely impeccable shape and head over heels for each other inside and out!

Only a year in, but from the beginning of the relationship my all time personal favorite and who I think should be the next ‘Tim and Faith’ Maren Morris and Ryan Hurd. I’ve fallen in love with each of them as master songwriters and artists individually and as a couple there is no stopping them. Their love is so pure and honest (Ryan Hurd lyric-pun from Diamonds or Twine intended). In every I miss you post, or anniversary of something special, or just an ‘I love you’ post just because. I would kill for a man that loves me the way Ryan loves Maren and vice versa. Maren has seen major success including earning a Grammy for best solo country performance of My Church back in 2017. Ryan has also has had some Grammy recognition as a songwriter. His 1st No. 1 single Lonely Tonight cut by Blake Shelton and Ashley Monroe was nominated for both a Grammy and a CMA award in 2015. Ryan wasn’t just meant for the songwriting accolades more recently he has been emerging as an artist himself. Opening up for people (people including his then fiance Maren on her Hero tour), he has opened up for Dustin Lynch, Old Dominion, and Thomas Rhett just to name a few. Even more recently his engagement song for Maren Diamonds or Twine reached #1 on the SiriusXM The Highway Hot 30 Countdown the day before the 1 year anniversary of his proposal to Maren. Full of gratitude in an Instagram post it was his first time seeing his own name as the artist at the top of the charts. Don’t worry that won’t be the last time you see Ryan Hurd the artist at the top of the charts, because as long as he keeps being authentic and draws inspiration from the love they share he will be producing music we want to hear.

Still one of my favorite performances is of Maren and Ryan performing the song they wrote for Tim McGraw Last Turn Home. They wrote it together as friends and perform it as soulmates and you can’t help but feel the emotion between the two. Here’s the video from the Hero Tour. Ryan really uses his love story as a source of inspiration, Love in a Bar was literally the beginning of his love story, but also a relatable beginning to anyone’s love story. The demo You Look Good (also inspired by Maren) a more upbeat tune was cut by Lady Antebellum and is now a huge summer hit as that was Lady A’s first single off their new album and title of their last world tour. Definitely a double threat between Maren and Ryan, both pure songwriters and both have such a great energy and stage presence as artists and performers. Absolutely worth seeing individually, and we already had a taste of them together on the Hero Tour, here’s hoping in 10 years or so we can have a full combined tour like Tim and Faith, Tim and Faith 2.0 the Morris and Hurd edition.

Ironically my next dynamic duo are really good songwriting friends of Maren Morris and Ryan Hurd. They have written songs together in many writing sessions and have supported one another's successes many times. I am alluding to John Osborne of Brothers Osborne and wife Lucie Silvas. Maren co-wrote Greener Pastures a track off Brothers Osborne debut album Pawn Shop. John and TJ of Brothers Osborne are already 2 time ACM and CMA Vocal Duo of the Year winners and just recently came out with their sophomore album Port Saint Joe. Who you might not have heard of is John’s equally as talented wife Lucie Silvas whose new album E.G.O set to be released August 24th. If you preorder her album you get two released songs Kite and First Rate Heartbreak. Silvas co-wrote all 12 songs of the new album and just from the two releases alone I for one cannot wait for the entire project. Lucie recently had an intimate show at Rockwood Music Hall in NYC where the crowd was lucky enough to hear new songs off the album. Such a powerhouse, soulful voice and a talented songwriter as well there’s so much more to come from this woman. She also opened up for her husband and brother in law on a couple UK tour stops. Again, both songwriters and artists with multiple albums, can’t get any more powerful than that.

Who you will be hard pressed to find on stage together (mainly due to conflicting tour schedules) are newlyweds Kelsea Ballerini and Morgan Evans. Kelsea Ballerini is currently currently on the Graffiti U tour with Keith Urban and Morgan Evans just wrapped up his 10 cities 10 days tour. Fans who attended the 8th tour stop at Mercury Lounge in NYC (such as myself) had our hopes up for a few hours thinking Kelsea would surprise the crowd since she had an off day between her show in Saratoga NY and her Canada stops, but sadly she was spending that off day in Canada with the band. Not to say you can’t catch performances of Mr. & Mrs. Ballerini sharing the stage with Morgan, serenading his new wife with his song Dance with Me or I Do. The 10 in 10 tour was a great opportunity to see Morgan in an intimate setting where he can get into the inspiration behind his songs, especially the ones that aren’t singles yet. Most know that Morgan is Australian and actually moved to Nashville three years ago. He fell in love with Kelsea hosting a Country Music Award Show in Australia and their first date was the week they flew back to Nashville.

Morgan has proven himself as an artist in his own right and he is well known for more than just being Mr. Ballerini by now. When he performed at the Mercury Lounge it was just two weeks after his single Day Drunk was released to country radio and the New York City crowd already knew every word, singing as loud as possible. Day Drunk was actually supposed to be his first single, but he just married Kelsea at the time, and as Morgan explained it didn’t really feel right releasing a song about being drunk five days after you say ‘I do’. So, a more fitting release for the moment Morgan’s second single to American country radio was I Do. Just released yesterday July 20th was his next single, also a love song to his American wife Kelsea, American.

Besides the cute love songs that Morgan is inspired to write, he is also a talented one man band. When he came to the states from Australia he unfortunately couldn’t take his whole band with him. Instead Morgan uses a loop pedal for everything, when you see him live which you all should at some point, he introduces the band via the loop pedal everything you hear is live nothing is prerecorded in his set. He does a cute intro of the guitarist, bass, and drums demonstrating what the loop pedal does. It is kind of how Ed Sheeran performs, you would never guess there is only one person on the stage when you listen to the live set. Morgan is very loyal to his Australian mates, his wife, his fans, and especially the people he owes his career too. A beautifully touching song he sang that night called Things We Drink To touched the entire crowd. His manager who was responsible for his discovery and was there every step of the way passed away recently. This song was for him, and easily relatable to anybody or anything that you’ve lost and hold on to that memory. My favorite line “battles we fight, wars that we win, pain that we’ve been through, things that we drink to”. Morgan also was impressed with the New York City crowd (of course, because we are the best), not only the energy and knowing every word to songs only released for two weeks, but being the loudest and also being quiet when necessary for tributes like that last song.

Another song definitely inspired by that moment where Morgan knew Kelsea was the one who would change everything was a song called Everything Changes, as he said that one moment that leads to the rest of your life “feels like this could be one of those nights starts with a smile one of those smiles turns into a drinks... one of those kiss that feels like forever one of those nights where everything changes’. Morgan’s full album is due Fall 2018. After the Mercury Lounge show you could get a meet and greet and a code to download the album when it comes out in the Fall. It is sure to be filled with the love inspired songs he has been singing on tour, love for not only his beautiful significant other, but love for everyone in his life, past and present.

The second half of the Evans family is just as equally inspired by her relationship to write about her new love. Kelsea Ballerini’s most recent album Unapologetically is a full concept album that goes through chronologically loss, life, love. The first few songs are about loss or end of a relationship, the middle is about living and growing up/discovering who you will become, and the end is falling in love and learning from and appreciating what the former two stages of your life gave you or helped shape you. In Kelsea’s adorable I Hate Love Songs music video the ending shows Kelsea getting a call on her phone from caller ID ‘M’ obviously M for Morgan Evans. Kelsea’s favorite part of the video she has mentioned (my favorite part too!) If you saw Kelsea on her Unapologetically headlining tour you got the treat of seeing the album performed the way it was meant to be heard, in track list order cover to cover, from loss, life, to love. End of The World has a hidden message in it because not only is it really about finally finding the one that puts the stars back in your eyes and gives you faith in love again, Kelsea’s ‘life line right on time’ Morgan was literally from the end of the world and they met in Australia. Love came full circle for both Morgan and Kelsea and fans of both artists benefit from the sweet hits that come out of that. (P.s. Lesson learned I need to go to Australia/end of the world to meet my Aussie life line where everything changes and then I can say I do to)

We are now to our second category of power couples where both partners are super talented, but one acts as the support role to the one that really falls in the spotlight. It is the ‘everything in between category’. The best aspect of these couples is that most of the time you can get a two for one deal when buying a ticket for the other. Most recently the first couple that comes to mind for me is actually country singer Maggie Rose and husband Austin Marshall. I saw Maggie perform at Opry City Stage in NYC on April 21st. Maggie and her band are phenomenal. She has been releasing digital 45's every so often, a little tease before she shares the full album with us! (Any day now Maggie, I’m getting impatient here!) For now you can buy and stream Pull You Through/Just Getting By, It’s You/Smooth, and Change The Whole Thing/Hey Blondie, and Long Way to Go/Do Right By My Love. You probably would recognize her music from her sassy hit Ain’t Your Mama ‘I’ll be your baby, I’ll be your lover anytime you wanna, but I ain’t your mama. Or my personal favorite Love Me More ‘I’m gonna do whatever it takes to get living again/ I tried things your way hey it wasn’t working out for me/ I’m sorry but I got to say I love you but I love me more”. How I know that her husband, who is her band manager and helped sell merch and introduced his wife on stage, is also extremely talented is because he came on for the encore cover of A Little Help From My Friends. The vocals that came from this man blew me away, he made screaming sound so good. Her album is highly anticipated, especially from me, because she got to create the album she wanted to produce with 10 of her closest people and band.

The other support duo I was thinking of was Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum and Chris Tyrell, her drummer. Chris Tyrell from Albany, NY (you can tell I have seen the show for many tours because that is how Hillary’s husband is usually introduced in the Northeast). Actually all three members of Lady A have extremely supportive spouses, and not much time ever goes by without one or all of them acknowledging that they wouldn’t be able to live this life without their support (especially since all three have kids now). Especially Hillary just had twin girls. Actually, for the Summer Plays On Tour Chris is taking some time off drumming with the band and either staying backstage on some shows with the girls or most of the time being the stay at home dad. Lady A snagged Kelsea Ballerini’s dummer Ian O’Neill for his replacement. It is so good to see two talents in one band being so supportive of each other’s careers that they will step back to let the other shine. Hillary is able to have her career and family life (all of Lady A really) thanks to her very loving and supportive husband and drummer Chris.

Also on the Summer Plays On Tour this summer is opener Russell Dickerson, who just so happens to fall in our third power couples category the ‘muses’ category. This is the catch all category where all the couples mentioned so far fall, but the significant other will not be found on stage or cowriting in a songwriting session. Russell is married to Kailey DIckerson, the inspiration behind his first #1 song Yours and his wedding song (including the rest of the world who hope to use it in their wedding one day). Definitely catch Russell on tour with Lady A and Darius Rucker this summer because he is such a high energy fun performer, perfect person to get the crowd hyped! Also, his second single Blue Tacoma has been used as adorable captions on his instagram, giving shout outs to his lovely wife as his everything. One of the cutest was a recent photo of the two kissing in a field captioned with the song lyric ‘if heaven is anywhere...it’s always having your hand to hold’.

I couldn’t end this post about power couples without mentioning the world’s favorite couple muse Thomas Rhett and Lauren Akins. They are definitely the next generations Tim & Faith when it comes to the country celebrity love scene! His song for Lauren Die A Happy Man made the entire world swoon, including the Grammy’s in 2017 and the Academy of Country Music, gaining him his first Grammy nomination and winning Single of the Year at the ACMs. Thomas has been in love with Lauren since the 2nd grade (according to his song Life Changes) and since the two married their life and family has grown and flourished. Now they have full hearts and a full family of four, after adopting Willa Grey and having baby Ada James (okay 6 with dogs Kona & Cash). Talk about family goals! The best part about Thomas Rhett is he loves telling the world about how in love he is, it is evident in every song, especially all the music videos Lauren stars in. The cutest being their vacation video for Die A Happy Man.

Well, there you have it: the top power couples on the music scene. Whether both are artists, one is a songwriter, a drummer, a manager, the muse, or the family support system the common thread among these categories is the power behind the love. Between the two of each of these couples- Tim and Faith, Maren and Ryan, Lucie Silvas and John Osborne, Kelsea and Morgan, Maggie Rose and Austin, Hillary Scott and Chris Tyrell, Russell Dickerson and Kailey, and Thomas Rhett and Lauren- the love will be prominent on or off stage and in the lyrics of the love songs they create. All 8 couples fall in all three categories, and that is the best kind of love, a love that has it all, so you can give it your all in every aspect of your life. So, if you have that in your life count yourself extremely lucky, and if you don’t take these examples as hope and binge on all the great songs that are already written about it! Oh yea, and go see these artists live, you don’t want to miss out!