SONG/VIDEO PREMIERE: Vintage Country Duo Megan and Shane Enlist Jon Rauhouse on Pedal Steel For Alluring “Alone”

When you listen to the deep-rooted Americana of Arizona-based musical duo Megan and Shane, you have a sense that this well-versed project really knows what they are doing. Their musical resume reads like one of a doctorate degree with its experience in the punk scenes, bluegrass circuits, ska bands, even hip-hop acts, all of which informs their work with the School of Rock franchises they operate in Arizona.

But nearest and dearest to their hearts is country music, which allows them a unique opportunity to meld all these disparate interests and to air their darkest secrets. Defined by Megan’s force-of-nature vocals and Shane’s inventive guitar playing, their full-length debut, Daughter of Country (out 9/3), is a memoir set to music, every word the God’s honest truth, as the husband-wife duo re-create the sounds pioneered by their heroes, while putting their own personal spin on the genre.

When recording their new songs and musical vision. Megan and Shane were so committed to these new songs that they sold their house to fund the creation and promotion of an album that would serve as their defining statement. First and foremost, they wanted to hire an outside producer—someone who could bring a different perspective to the music. After considering candidates all over the country, they finally settled on somebody just down the street: Bob Hoag, who runs Flying Blanket Recording in Mesa, Arizona, and has helmed albums by Courtney Marie Andrews and the Gin Blossoms, among many others. To capture both the sound and the spirit of the country music they loved, they recorded to tape rather than digitally, often using first takes to preserve the spontaneity of the performances. One area where they took their time, however, was with Megan’s vocals. “Every time we’ve recorded before,” she says, “my vocals always got pushed to the end and I never got to spend the time to get the perfect take.”

Glide is proud to premiere the song and video for the knock-em dead single “Alone,” which features the cool windswept pedal steel of Jon Rauhouse. In a crowded Americana scene, Megan and Shane stand out as licit ambassadors for a vintage sound, where accomplished vocals, stirring musicianship and colorful nuances give its music a sense of time and place. Let’s hope they can get out to Nashville soon and use their teaching chops to put on a clinic of their own.

“We wrote Alone about looking at your surroundings, like really looking and realizing you have to just go and be somewhere else. Shane choreographed the video and we pieced together bits and pieces of line dances. We thought the stoic faces and the sweet dance would be a fun twist,”