Joey + Rory

Joey + Rory, a country music duo featuring husband-and-wife vocalists <a href="spotify:artist:1glIraWOYNWCBOxG1ifOHF">Rory Lee Feek</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:5NKLdIo3FK8SkJIkZRkM5O">Joey Martin Feek</a>, made their debut on the CMT series Can You Duet in 2008. Although both musicians had spent years focusing on their individual careers, they proved to be a strong duo and ultimately finished third in the competition, laying the groundwork for a collaborative career. Kansas-born <a href="spotify:artist:1glIraWOYNWCBOxG1ifOHF">Rory Feek</a> had originally hit Nashville in 1995, hoping to hawk his songs. A meeting with legendary songwriter <a href="spotify:artist:4434X6OAEmeOF5FNnApZ6F">Harlan Howard</a> resulted in a publishing deal, and <a href="spotify:artist:5NKLdIo3FK8SkJIkZRkM5O">Feek</a> served as his lone staff writer through 2000, at which point he moved over to <a href="spotify:artist:3Ay15wt0QChT4Kapsuw5Jt">Clint Black</a>'s Blacktop Music. He eventually left that publishing contract, too, in order to start Giantslayer Publishing in 2004 with songwriting partner Tim Johnson.

<a href="spotify:artist:5NKLdIo3FK8SkJIkZRkM5O">Joey Feek</a> was born in Alexandria, Indiana, and made her first public singing appearance at the age of six, when she performed <a href="spotify:artist:32vWCbZh0xZ4o9gkz4PsEU">Dolly Parton</a>'s "Coat of Many Colors" at a first-grade talent show. She moved to Nashville in 1998, signed to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sony+Records%22">Sony Records</a> in 2000, and recorded a debut album with producers Paul Worley and <a href="spotify:artist:0LHbVApmSXdfJP6lV1vaZL">Billy Crain</a>. Changes in the label's infrastructure led to the album being shelved, however. She recorded a second album, Strong Enough to Cry, in 2004, but that too was never officially released, although it did become available as a download in 2007.

The spotlight finally found Joey + Rory in 2008, when the two auditioned for the Can You Duet show at the request of a mutual friend. After the show wrapped up, the pair signed a record deal with <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sugar+Hill+Records%22">Sugar Hill Records</a> and released a debut album, The Life of a Song, that same year. <a href="spotify:artist:1glIraWOYNWCBOxG1ifOHF">Rory</a> also released a digital solo album, My Ol' Man, but The Life of a Song proved to be the bigger release, cracking the country Top Ten and earning the duo three nominations (and one win) from the 2010 Academy of Country Music Awards. A follow-up album, simply called Album Number Two, was also released in 2010 and hit the Top Ten of country. A Farmhouse Christmas arrived in time for the holidays in 2011, while His and Hers appeared at the end of the summer in 2012 on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sugar+Hill%22">Sugar Hill</a>/<a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Vanguard%22">Vanguard</a>. The couple's first gospel album, 2013's Inspired: Songs of Faith & Family, included new songs as well as covers of gospel classics. It was followed later the same year by the country album Made to Last. A cover album, Country Classics: A Tapestry of Our Musical Heritage, came in 2014.

Sadly, in 2015, <a href="spotify:artist:5NKLdIo3FK8SkJIkZRkM5O">Joey Feek</a> revealed that a prior occurrence of cervical cancer had returned and spread, and that October, the couple announced that it was terminal. She entered hospice care a month later. Joey + Rory continued with plans to release another religious album; Hymns That Are Important to Us arrived in February 2016. The following month, <a href="spotify:artist:5NKLdIo3FK8SkJIkZRkM5O">Joey Feek</a> died at the age of 40. ~ Steve Leggett, Rovi