Award-winning Couple Turn to Timeless Songs of Faith Through Health Battle
New Performance DVD Featuring a Behind-the-scenes Interview to Accompany Audio Recording
NASHVILLE, Tenn.—January 21, 2016— GRAMMY®-nominated, husband-and-wife country music duo Joey+Rory have announced the release of an all-new recording. Hymns That Are Important to Us (Gaither Music Group) is now available for pre-sale and will be available throughout the general and CBA marketplaces on February 12th.
“I refer to [this] as Joey’s album–the one she’s always wanted to make–filled with the hymns she grew up singing,” described Rory. “It was early in the spring when we started talking about the record…we began recording it in a studio in Nashville early in the summer, just after recovering from her first big surgery in Chicago. She championed it…and even with all she’s gone through there might have been a few things that changed, but that record was not gonna stop….
“So we recorded in between some of her treatments after the surgery. Sometimes in the evenings I would get out a microphone, and my wife sang the vocals in our hotel room in Atlanta because she wanted to see this record happen. She did her vocals where she could–in hotel rooms, at our house, wherever and whenever she felt up to singing.”
As reported on Rory’s blog www.thislifeilive.com and covered by major media outlets across the country, Joey has been fighting Stage 4 cancer for over six months. During that time she and Rory have turned to family, friends and their faith as never before. And they have turned to hymns—timeless melodies with messages that continue to carry them through a difficult and inspiring journey of faith.
The songs Joey picked and the words she recorded were especially significant to her as she has found strength in them through her highly-publicized health battle. The release features songs such as “It Is Well with My Soul,” “How Great Thou Art,” “I Surrender All” and “I Need Thee Every Hour.”
“A lot has taken place in a year’s time, but through it all these songs have given me such strength,” stated Joey. “They’ve given me such hope, and they give me something to look forward to. I think that a lot of times when we don’t know what to say…you don’t know what to pray…you don’t know how to even begin…I think that’s, for me, where these hymns have come into play so much…
’Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, help me stand. I’m tired…I’m weak…I’m worn. Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light, take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.’
“I remember waking up–it was about two days after my surgery–at one point in the middle of the night,” recalled Joey. “I’m hooked up to every machine possible; and out of just complete thankfulness that I came through, I remember having the strength to sit up enough, and my hands just elevated over my head, and I sang [the hymn], ‘I need Thee, oh I need Thee, every hour I need thee….’
“Every hour He got me through…and it was hard, and I needed Him every hour, and I still do to this day—there are days that are just hard. [This song] has got us through so much at every hour that we needed Him…He continues to watch over us and take care of us. People every day who don’t have cancer who are dealt with trials or family issues or whatever it might be…we need Him. It doesn’t matter what it is, and when we think that we can get by on our own we’re so wrong….”
“[Hymns] have met generations of people at their moments of need, which is incredible,” Rory described. “As a songwriter…we’re moved that someone will sing along with one of our songs today, but imagine them singing along with one of our songs in 100 years. That’s an incredible achievement, and I think it’s mostly because there are things that don’t last and things that do. What these songs are about–they’re gonna matter then just as much as they do now, just as much as they did 100 years ago. That’s pretty special.
“In early October, we even did a TV taping of these songs in the concert hall at our farm in front of a live audience,” described Rory. “Joey was weak and it was difficult for her, but she was determined…these are the songs that are most important to her….”
The family has spent the past few months in Joey’s hometown of Alexandria, Indiana, near Joey’s family. Rory and their daughter Heidi went into Bill Gaither’s nearby studio to add harmony parts to Joey’s lead vocals for the recording while in that area. The DVD includes a special, behind-the-scenes interview with Gaither and Joey+Rory recorded at their farm in Tennessee; and the audio recording includes a moving re-release of the song “When I’m Gone,” found on Joey+Rory’s His and Hers recording (Sugar Hill Records/Vanguard Records, divisions of Concord Music Group, Inc.), a fan favorite that has received over 7,035,000 views on YouTube.
An exclusive deluxe package of the all-new, acoustic-driven, 13-song recording, produced by Rory and Joe West, will be sold at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store®, complete with a detailed, 48-page booklet of photos, memories and stories penned by Rory as well as a keepsake magnet.
In December the country stars received news of their first GRAMMY® nomination. They have been honored for Best Country Duo/Group Performance for their recording of “If I Needed You,” written by Townes Van Zandt and featured on their current project, Country Classics, A Tapestry of Our Musical Heritage (Gaither Music Group).
“I strive to live a great story,” stated Rory. “I’ve always been this way. I wanna live a great story. God has given Joey and me an incredible story.”
That inspiring love story includes a back home style of country music that has become a nationally known brand. The Academy of Country Music (ACM) Award-winning couple is widely known as the creators and hosts of “The Joey+Rory Show,” one of the highest-rated weekly programs on RFD-TV airing in 40 million households each week. The variety show is distributed to the DISH Network, DIRECTV, Comcast, Verizon FiOS TV, AT&T U-verse, Mediacom, Charter, Optimum, Brighthouse, Suddenlink, Time Warner, Cox and more than 600 independent rural cable systems.
Their latest creations, the Hymns That Are Important to Us CD and DVD, will be featured regularly on TV networks including RFD-TV, PBS, DISH TV, DIRECTV, AT&T U-verse, TBN, Family Net, CTN, The Walk TV (formerly Legacy), TCT and TLN and also in Canada on Vision TV, CTS, Grace TV and the Miracle Channel. The DVD will be featured on Gaither TV (available on DISH TV, Roku, Google and the Internet).
Hymns That Are Important to Us will be exclusively distributed by Capitol Christian Distribution and will be available throughout general market stores and the Christian marketplace in addition to online retailers including iTunes, Amazon and www.gaither.com. Pre-sales are available now at www.Amazon.com, www.iTunes.com, www.joeyandrory.com and www.gaither.com.
Watch a preview of the DVD:
For further information regarding Joey+Rory, visit:
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Rory’s blog
CD Song List: Hymns That Are Important to Us
1. Take My Hand, Precious Lord
2. I Surrender All
3. He Touched Me
4. Softly and Tenderly
5. Jesus Loves Me
6. It Is Well with My Soul
7. The Old Rugged Cross
8. I Need Thee Every Hour
9. How Great Thou Art
10. I’ll Fly Away
11. Jesus Paid It All
12. Suppertime
13. When I’m Gone
Produced by Rory Feek and Joe West
“When I’m Gone” produced by Gary Paczosa
ABOUT JOEY+RORY
Joey+Rory, a country music duo featuring husband-and-wife vocalists Rory Feek and Joey Martin Feek, spent years focusing on their individual careers; but they both realized they were stronger together which laid the groundwork for a collaborative songwriting and performing career. The new formation resulted in their debut on the CMT series “Can You Duet” in 2008, where they placed third and released their debut album, The Life of a Song, which won the 2010 Academy of Country Music Award for Top New Vocal Duo.
The couple, currently up for a GRAMMY® nomination, is known for their simple, authentic, country lifestyle of homegrown food, family and faith in Jesus. They have completed four seasons of their RFD-TV series, “The Joey+Rory Show,” filmed in their community on their own soundstage built in the barn on their farm. The Kansas-born Rory Feek and Alexandria, Indiana-born Joey Martin Feek host an annual “Bib & Buckle Fest” held on their farm in Pottsville, Tennessee. They welcome approximately 2,000 music fans each year to their homestead for this event. The award-winning duo also holds a Farmhouse Concert Series at their home. They are long-term partners with Overstock, KRAFT Foods, Roper, Crosley and others.
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Media Contact:
Celeste Winstead/Gaither Music Group
615-383-5535, ext. 138
CWinstead@springhillmusic.com
