LISTEN HERE
SET TO PERFORM BMI’S
“EIGHT OFF EIGHTH” CONCERT SERIES ON JULY 8
Los Angeles – Nashville-based husband-wife country duo The Dryes have released their new single, “Marley.” Co-written with Shane Stevens (Lady Antebellum’s “American Honey”), the song is ripe for summer with its reggae vibe and grooveable melodies. On July 8, the band will perform the song live in Nashville for BMI’s “Eight Off Eighth” concert series at Mercy Lunge. Click here to listen/share “Marley” via the DSPs or here via YouTube.
“We wrote ‘Marley’ when we were writing with a friend in Palm Desert, California,” says Katelyn Drye. “I initially had this song title idea ‘Marley’ for a few months because when I was in high school, me and my friends would borrow their mom’s convertible and turn on Bob Marley in the summer. I wanted to recreate this moment for our fans so they could have a summer jam like I did with Bob Marley, because who doesn’t love a good summer song? We wrote this outside on the porch, surrounded by palm trees, so you’ll hear a lot of fun references to those surroundings. When Derek started playing that intro guitar part in the song, our co-writer Shane Stevens sung a melody that just sounded so reggae, so we took that and ran with it!”
Katelyn and Derek Drye have been on a fast rising trajectory since their debut single, “Amen,” was released in 2018 and caught the ear of Rolling Stone Country’s Jon Freeman who noted the song’s, “…scuzzy guitar riff that recalls Norman Greenbaum’s classic ’Spirit In The Sky’ and a strutting beat that could make the most conservative church lady clutch her pearls. Husband Derek adds harmonies in the chorus breakdown, a low-down gospel that asks the rhetorical question: ‘Can I get an Amen?’ With a groove this tough, absolutely.”
“Marley” comes on the heels of The Dryes’ successful release of “War” which has garnered over 1.3 million streams to date on Spotify and praise from CMT who wrote about the deeply personal music video that accompanies the single.
A music video for “Marley” is expected to arrive in the coming weeks.
The first time the public got a taste of Nashville-based husband-wife country duo The Dryes was in May 2018 when they began releasing material from Vol.1, their debut EP. Vol.1 was recorded at the famed Blackbird Studios in Nashville, a town the Thomasville, North Carolina native Derek Drye and Winston-Salem native Katelyn Drye now call home. Their first single, “Amen,” highlights the duo’s knack for writing compelling and hook-filled songs. The Dryes’ subsequent “War,” a song 30 years in the making, carries an emotional backstory and was released alongside a breathtaking music video. CMT shared some thoughts on the single when they ran the video, saying “…this duo sings of a love worth fighting for in their latest single ‘War’.” Set in a local Nashville studio, the couple dances in front of family footage of Derek’s mom, who was lost to suicide when he was only eight months old. This film was actually discovered after they wrote the song, and it was the first time that Derek had seen his mom in anything other than a photo. Derek says, “I had always heard stories of mom and seen pictures. But pictures don’t move. And pictures don’t speak. That all changed in April 2018 when we found these films of her, and we knew that we had to pair it with this song.” Love will find a way. Sometimes it lies in footage that has been asleep for thirty years.