Celebrating their sixth anniversary as members of the Grand Ole Opry this month, musical duo Dailey & Vincent are currently traveling the country on tour, including a stop at the incredible concert venue at The Caverns in Pelham, TN, on March 18. Catch up with the duo’s Jamie Dailey about their most recent music and his appreciation for his home state of Tennessee.
What was your favorite part of making your most recent album, “Let’s Sing Some Country!”?
I think it was working with Paul Worley, who is a renowned producer. He’s produced a lot of hits, including Lady A, Need You Now, and “Independence Day” with Martina McBride, and the list goes on and on. But his expertise in the studio with us is second to none – a great guy. And, of course, working with some of our heroes who were special guests and friends—Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, Jake Hoot, the winner of The Voice, Sharon White Skaggs, and Rhonda Vincent—was an absolutely amazing experience as well. So that made it a lot of fun, and the songs that we love so much are on it. One of the songs on the record, ‘I’ll Leave My Heart In Tennessee,’ was written by my neighbor [songwriter Karen Staley]; she put it in my mailbox. It had never been recorded before, and it just tells the story of how I grew up and my life in Gainesboro [Tennessee]... I live in Downtown Nashville, but I still have a place in Gainesboro. Lo and behold, the Tennessee House, State, and Senate asked us to sing it on the chamber floors, and they voted it in unanimously to be a new Tennessee state song, and Governor Lee signed it in. We feel really blessed by that.
You’ve referred to this album as “our version of Country music.” How would you describe your music?
…In our style of Country music—not that there isn’t in others—but in ours, there’s certainly a lot of heart, and we put a lot of soul into it. It talks about life and about every day, the way we live….
What does it mean to you to have a song that you guys have recorded be an official state song?
It means the world to me because I love Tennessee. It’s where I grew up, it’s where I lived my whole life, and so it means the world to me that people would like that song enough for it to be pushed into being voted for [a] Tennessee State Song….