As half of the husband/wife country music duo Joey+Rory, featured on the new CMT/American Idol tv show “Can You Duet”, Rory is a true American storyteller. As a songwriter, he’s written three 1 records in the last few years (Blake Shelton’s “Some Beach”, Clay Walker’s “The Chain of Love” and Collin Raye’s “Someone You Used To Know”) and has cuts by Kenny Chesney, Randy Travis, Terri Clark, Mark Wills, Reba McEntire, Waylon Jennings, Lorrie Morgan, Buck Owens, John Michael Montgomery and Charlie Pride to name a few. Able to write many different styles, he’s best known as a storyteller for the way he weaves unforgettable slices of American life. His latest creation that’s on the current Country charts is new RCA artist Crystal Shawanda’s touching debut single “You Can Let Go”.

Born in Kansas (he rarely wears anything but overalls), and raised up around country music and cornfields, his father Robert was an aspiring singer that worked on the railroad and dreamed of going to Nashville, but never took the chance. Rory vowed to make his father’s dream a reality for himself. And in ’95, he showed up in Nashville in a ’56 Chevy and began hitting the streets with his songs. After a chance meeting with legendary songwriter Harlan Howard, he was invited to his hero’s office and ended up signing a publishing deal where he worked as Harlan’s lone staff-writer for the next five years. He went on to spend 3 years writing for Clint Black’s company Blacktop Music. After leaving that deal in 2004, he and longtime friend & songwriting partner Tim Johnson started Giantslayer Publishing, a co-venture with State One Music Publishing. They have 6 writers and an office on Music Row.

In ‘02, Rory found, self-funded, and along with Tim, co-produced Blaine Larsen’s debut album – independently creating and releasing their own single, video and album that received major airplay and resulted in a major label co-imprint deal with RCA records… an unheard of accomplishment in Country Music at the time. Rory co-wrote Blaine’s heart-wrenching single “How Do You Get That Lonely” that peaked at 15 on Billboard. This past December, Rory and Tim wrote, recorded, and their label Giantslayer partnered up with Capitol Records Nashville, to release the heartwarming Christmas single “Bring Him Home Santa”... rocketing up the Billboard charts to 29 in just 4 weeks. Never afraid to step into uncharted territory... Rory and his wife, singer Joey Martin, recently auditioned for, and are part of, the new CMT/American Idol tv show "Can You Duet" that begins airing on 4/14/08. Remaining true to who they are and to the music they love, Joey and Rory are poised to be one of America’s next great country music duos. They live 40 miles south of Nashville in an 1870’s farmhouse in Columbia, along with a herd of cattle (actually only one steer named Shooter), some chickens, ducks, dogs and a big garden.


“I’m a songwriter. I’ve had a few hits, a bunch of misses and an amazing time doing what I love for a living. I produce a little, dream a lot and try to surround myself with great people. I’m married to the best country singer that I’ve ever heard and have been blessed with two wonderful babies (their 19 and 21 now, but they’re still babies to me) who are out on their own now, finding their own way, just as I’m still trying to find mine. My wife Joey and I live in an old 1870’s farmhouse, about an hour south of Nashville, where we raise babies (at least we did), chickens, ducks, 2 dogs and one cow named Shooter.” -Rory

For more information, go to www.joeyandrory.com.
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