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Sunday, 15 March, 2009 1:18 PM
CMA New Artist Spotlight: The
Roys
Photo
by Joe Hardwick
Pedestal
recording artists The Roys
| By
Bob Doerschuk |
| ©
2009 CMA Close Up News Service |
It's tempting to say
that the easy affinity displayed by The Roys can be explained by
their history as brother and sister raised by French Canadian parents
in Fitchburg, Mass., and in the tiny town of Coal Branch, New Brunswick,
Canada.
That's only half the
story, though. Plenty of siblings fall short of the talent that
Elaine and Lee Roy exhibit. There's enough looseness in their harmonies
and distinction in their timbres to establish each as an individually
gifted singer. And their joy over making music adds dimension to
their most heartbroken ballads and infuses their uptempo tracks
with the playfulness that siblings often share.
They came to Nashville,
survived a major record label deal gone bad, went back to Fitchburg
to tighten their act and then returned to Music City to take control
of their destiny. With their vocal coach Kenny Royster producing,
they cut 12 songs, five of them co-writes by Lee and the rest of
them well suited to their sound.
A single from their Pedestal
Records debut album, Good Days, "Workin' Girl Blues,"
which Lee wrote with Royster, combines a foot-stomp beat, swampy
guitar and the feisty fatalism of a nine-to-fiver minutes away from
the weekend.
But they also ease into
the tropical heat of "The Good Life Paradise" and turn
faded pages of memory on the fiddle caressed "Grandpa's Barn."
All of it comes to life through unaffected yet impeccable performances
that herald the arrival of The Roys, who describe themselves jokingly
as a "15-year overnight sensation," come at last to the
dawn of an enduring career.
MUSICAL HERO
ELAINE: "Dolly Parton."
LEE: "Ricky Skaggs."
SONG YOU'D SECRETLY
LOVE TO COVER
ELAINE: "'Old Flames
Can't Hold a Candle to You.'"
LEE: "'Do It Right,' by Vern Gosdin."
PET PEEVE
ELAINE: "Clutter."
LEE: "Traffic."
BOOK ON YOUR NIGHTSTAND
ELAINE: "The Last
Lecture, by Randy Pausch."
LEE: "A Pirate Looks at 50, by Jimmy Buffett."
CD ON YOUR STEREO
ELAINE: "Good Time,
by Alan Jackson."
LEE: "Me too."
WORD OR PHRASE YOU
SAY OVER AND OVER
ELAINE AND LEE: "Good
luck with that."
DREAM DUET PARTNER
ELAINE: "Dolly Parton."
LEE: "Ricky Skaggs, Alan Jackson or Rhonda Vincent."
SONG YOU WISH YOU
WROTE
ELAINE: "'I Will
Always Love You.'"
LEE: "'What Hurts the Most.'"
MODE OF TRANSPORTATION
YOU PREFER
ELAINE AND LEE: "Tour
bus."
WHEN THEY LOOK BACK
ON YOUR LIFE IN 50 YEARS, WHAT YOU HOPE PEOPLE SAY ABOUT YOU
ELAINE: "That they
loved our music and that we touched their lives in some way."
LEE: "That our music touched them and it made them sing along."
On the Web: www.theroyscountry.com
AmericaJR.com
is Detroit's exclusive media outlet for this syndicated weekly column!
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