Singer, songwriter and television personality Rory Feek recently shared details about Gentle Man, his first new music since the 2016 passing of his wife and duo partner, Joey Feek.
Rory's solo debut arrives June 18 on Gaither Records, an imprint ran by Bill and Gloria Gaither, two gospel legends from Joey's hometown of Alexandria, Indiana.
Songs shared from the album include April 23 release "One Angel." It teams Rory with one of Joey's heroes, Dolly Parton. Together, they breathe life into a song about keeping the faith in times of unspeakable loss.
"As soon as I heard Rory was working on this album, I asked if I could contribute somehow," Parton said in a press release. "Rory is a true gentle man. God bless you, Rory."
The album will also feature guest appearances by Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill, Lee Ann Womack and Alison Krauss.
A music video for "Me and the Blues" hit the internet right before Valentine's Day. The song and video capture the emotional ups and downs that follow losing one of the most important people in your life.
Rory's openness about love and loss will surely help others on their spiritual and personal walks. Just be sure to watch this one outside of work hours if you're not into crying alone in your home office.
The album will include a Vince Gill collaboration and a cover of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin'." If it's anything like the music of Joey + Rory, the rest of the album will bridge the already narrow gap between gospel and country music.
Joey and Rory met in Nashville and wed in 2002. Six years later, the songwriters' appearances on CMT competition series Can You Duet launched a career as a duo that brought fans eight albums and a Top 30 country hit, "Cheater, Cheater."
Joey passed away on March 4, 2016 from cervical cancer. She's buried on the family farm in Columbia, Tennessee.
Rory's blog This Life I Live chronicled not just Joey's sickness but also her love story with her husband and their daughter Indiana. An RFD-TV docu-series, also titled This Life I Live, chronicles the Feek family's life after Joey as well as the opening of a new restraurant dedicated to her, Marcy Jo's Muletown.
The Joey+Rory album Hymns won a 2017 Grammy award in the Roots Gospel Album category.
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Rory's songwriting success dates back to "Someone You Used to Know," a Top 5 hit in 1999 for Collin Raye. Other country singers who'd go on to record Rory's co-writes include Blake Shelton, Kenny Chesney and Randy Travis.
Per a 2020 story by People, Indiana and other local children attend classes at the Hardison Mill Schoolhouse, an old-fashioned one-room schoolhouse which was built using $100,000 donated by fans after Joey's passing.
"We needed to come up with another plan since Joey wasn't going to be able to homeschool Indy," Rory told People.
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