© 2010 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.
Artist: Steel Magnolia
Label: Big Machine Records
Web site: www.MySpace.com/SteelMagnoliaMusic
They captured America’s attention last year as winners of CMT’s “Can You Duet” competition. Their first single, “Keep On Lovin’ You,” featured on the soundtrack for “Valentine’s Day,” made history by charting higher than any other debut by a male/female twosome in the 66-year history of the Billboard Country chart. They’ve been on the road with Brad Paisley’s “H2O World Tour.” Their first album is wrapped and ready to release.
Hard to believe that it wasn’t that long ago that fate brought Joshua Scott Jones and Meghan Linsey together when each jumped onstage in a Nashville club for a karaoke romp through Air Supply’s “All Out of Love.” Each had come to Nashville in search of a solo career, Linsey having already opened at 15 for Paisley, Toby Keith and other headliners at shows near her hometown of Ponchatoula, La., and Jones having trekked from Charleston, Ill., to Los Angeles to try his luck in rock before making his way to Music City.
Their voices are complementary; Linsey sings in a soulful, sometimes simmering style, and Jones has an inviting, sometimes humorous way with a lyric. They’ve already proven on television that they can “duet.” They’ll make that clear again, with all the excitement of live performance, at their CMA Music Festival.
How do you feel about performing at CMA Music Festival?
JONES: We are really excited about the show because it is one of the only shows in Nashville where it is all about the fans coming into town to show their love for the music.
LINSEY: It feels great! It’s an amazing opportunity to get out there and meet fans and play some of our new songs! We’re so excited!
How will you prepare for this performance?
JONES: We will prep with a good amount of talking-through our stage show and then hopefully getting ample rehearsal time in with the band to execute.
LINSEY: Just a lot of rehearsal. We just recently put our band together. We’ve been playing acoustically for 10 months, so we can’t wait to start playing full band shows!
How will you pick which songs you’d like to do in your set?
JONES: We’ll choose songs that fans relate to and throw in a few that everyone loves and put them in an order that will hopefully create a fun ride for our audience.
LINSEY: Well, it is an outdoor event, so we definitely want to keep it upbeat and rockin’! We’ll definitely play some stuff from our new record that will be out in September too.
Have you ever attended Music Fest as a fan?
JONES: Last year we sat in the nosebleed section and just wanted to be up onstage as a performer! We loved the show – Miranda Lambert walked out and rocked “Kerosene,” head banging and all!
LINSEY: Oh, yeah – all the time when I was a kid. I actually attended in 2004 right before I moved to town, and I just remember sitting in LP Field watching Martina McBride play and dreaming about doing that one day.
Are there any shows or events at this year’s Festival you do not want to miss?
LINSEY: We always try to make it to some of the big stage shows in LP Field. They’re always full of great artists!
I attended a concert headlining Steel Magnolia in Louisville, KY this summer. It was an outdoor concert and the duo knew how to rock the heat. It was a high energy performance with an awesome band. I feel lucky to have seen Meg and Josh live so early in their well-deserved careers. They were both very warm and inviting in the backstage area signing autographs and taking pictures with fans. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening, and I look forward to seeing them again in Indianapolis on September 3.