Rodney Atkins and Rose Falcon are making beautiful music together in a new way – together. The married country superstars released their five-track debut EP (Rod+Rose) today offering an intimate look at their perspective of love and marriage.
We caught up earlier today with Atkins and Falcon to chat about the release of their new EP, who has inspired them musically along the way and which artists they would like to collaborate with.
Photo Credit: Dove Shore
Congratulations on debuting Rod+Rose that just released today! Can you give us some background on how this EP came about and what we can expect to find on it?
Rodney: Thank you. Rose and I have been writing songs together for years. My last album, we did a couple duets, then when the pandemic happened, we made a video of us performing a song we had done a duet on and put it out there [on social media] and it got a huge response from folks. Mike Curb of Curb Records called one day and said, ‘I think you and Rose should do a project together, not just you guys singing a duet, but as a new artist.’ I think we needed that. We needed for someone to say ‘You guys should do this.’ We both thought it was a great idea, so we started writing songs, recording and it sort of all came together. It has been so fun to sing together; we love singing together. It’s a little different than what I normally do and I think it’s a little different from what Rose normally does; but it’s about what we bring out in each other. I think they are real love songs about real relationships where the skies are not always blue and there is never no bills and everything is perfect. It’s not about that. It’s about through thick and thin; no matter what; instead of falling apart, falling together. I think it’s very relatable and there are some powerful songs in there.
Rose: I think what Rodney was saying about it’s not always blue skies and not about being perfect, I think one thing, as a writer, what used to be popular in country music was to sing about what happens during the week and then it became all about the weekend. I hope we are throwing it back to that grittiness of, this is real life; this is what happens during the week, not just about when we are out on a Saturday night having a good time. This is about love and doing the work, and putting in the time to have something that endures, is real and is strong. Not to say I don’t love a good weekend song. I just think we needed to write something really real and authentic.
Which song on this EP would you say has the most meaning for both of you?
Rose: They all have a theme of unconditional love. I don’t usually listen to my own music [laughs], but today it was just me and the kids kind of hanging out together, listening to some music and I was kind of giving myself a moment to just be proud of what we did. In music, you never really know if you did a good job or not until you start getting approval. You think this is good, but it’s not like other jobs; it’s so different.
Can you share some of the inspirations that went into making this EP?
Rodney: We started working on it during the middle of the pandemic in 2020 when the whole country and the whole world was going crazy. Everybody was just getting divided; everything was us against them, and I wanted this to feel like bringing people together. The song “Being Here, Being There,” I remember when we started writing that song I said, “If today was a fish, I’d throw it back.’ The guys we were writing with kind of laughed about it. Then Rose said, ‘You can bet your ass I’ve got your back.’ That just kind of spurred the whole song of “Being Here, Being There.” It was the feelings of what everyone was going through; that was our inspiration.
Rose: With a lot of people isolating and a lot of people divorcing and breaking up, I think what Rod and I tried to do and what this album is about is when things get difficult, falling together rather than falling apart.
Photo Credit: Dove Shore
Who have been some of your biggest influences in music throughout your careers?
Rose: When I was younger, I got my first record deal when I was 14; my dad is a singer/songwriter and he raised me. My mother passed when I was four years old; she had breast cancer. My dad taught me how to write songs. He managed me through the beginning of my career, so he was my biggest supporter and then came Rodney, so I really lucked out to have such supportive men in my life.
Rodney: As far as musical influences, I always say Charlie Daniels. My parents asked me when I was like five years old, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up? A baseball player? A fireman?’ They say I said, ‘How do you get to be Charlie Daniels?’ After I met that guy and spent time with him, he is just a special human; the way he made you feel, the way he treated people around him, the music, the fire that his music has. He is probably my biggest musical influence.
Rodney, how did it feel to join the “Billionaire’s Club” on Pandora last year celebrating 2B streams?
That was awesome. It’s kind of hard to get your head around it. It’s humbling to think about that your songs get played that much. It makes me extremely grateful to know that folks are hearing the music and it’s touching them; it just blows me away. And the stories that you hear from people after they hear your music. It doesn’t just go in one ear and out the other. I have been fortunate that people hear my songs and they say, ‘Man, that’s my jam. That’s me and my son; me and my friends; me and my family.’ I love that.
How has your marriage helped shape your music?
Rodney: I was married previously and I would go on the road and play songs and come back. If I tried to touch a guitar, it was like, ‘I can’t believe you’re playing music in the house. That’s all you do.’ So, there was no music in the house. With Rose, the first thing we did is sang songs. I fell in love with singing songs and playing songs. It’s funny, they say when people are in love they make music together because that’s what we do.
Rose: That’s funny [laughs] because I never thought of it like that.
Any artists you would like to collaborate with together?
Rodney: That’s a tough one. I’ve always wanted to do something with Garth Brooks; I think that would be fun. So, Garth and Tricia – there you go.
Rose: I’ve never been asked that before, but Garth is who I was going to say also.
Your Boston show at City Winery has been postponed until the spring. You’re lucky you will be missing out on tomorrow’s blizzard!
Rose: We are really excited about the show. It will be different in an intimate setting and I think people are going to get to hear some stories about the songs that they have never heard before. Rod’s going to play his songs; I am going to play some of my songs and we are going to play the Rod+Rose stuff, so I am just so excited to see people see another side of Rodney and know more about him and to share our music.
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