Duo do it: Make beautiful country music together : GoMemphis.com

On Wednesday, two days after their seventh wedding anniversary, Joey Martin and Rory Feek dragged themselves out of bed and made a pot of coffee, like millions of married couples around the world. It was going to be a light day, with Martin, a model-gorgeous brunette, probably heading to work at Marcy Jo's Mealhouse, the meat-and-three she co-owns with her sister-in-law, while her husband, tall and red-headed with a Gary Copper handsomeness, stayed at home picking his guitar.

If the bucolic scene sounds like something out of one of those folksy Overstock.com commercials, well, it pretty much is. Martin and Feek got tapped to star in the spots -- seemingly ripped straight from their own lives -- last year when they were contestants on Country Music Television's music competition show "Can You Duet?" More traditional than most of their competitors, the pair came in third on the show, but with the television commercials and the release of their debut album last October, they're looking more and more like the winners.

Now the couple, who perform in Beale Street's Handy Park Thursday as part of radio station KIX 106's free music series, "KIX on Beale," are on the verge of full-on music stardom. Their debut single, "Cheater, Cheater" made the Top 30. In February they were nominated for Top Vocal Duo at the Academy of Country Music Awards. And last week, the night before they sat down with their coffee cups for an interview, the pair performed on the CMT Music Awards, where their video for "Cheater, Cheater" was nominated.

"That was a lot of fun," says Martin. "We got to see a lot peers and a lot of people who we had no idea they knew who we were. Keith Urban and Darius Rucker, people like that backstage who came over and gave us big old hugs and said they were fans. We were just blown away by that."

Martin and Feek came to Nashville from different places but with similar dreams. Martin hails from Indiana and inherited the music gene from her parents. She made her performing debut in a first grade talent show singing Dolly Parton's "Coat of Many Colors" with her dad accompanying her on guitar.

"Ever since then I've had the itch to be a performer," she says. "So I made my move (to Nashville) and I've been here 10, 11 years now. It's one of those dreams that you carry with you. You have to keep following that dream and plugging away and trying, but I never dreamed this big."

Raised in Kansas, Feek, likewise, developed a love for music through his parents, especially his country-loving father, a popular musician in their parts. After graduating high school, Feek joined the Marines and during his two tours of duty was stationed twice at the Naval Support Activity base in nearby Millington. While living here, in his free time he would hit area open mics to hone his performing skills. Upon his discharge, he moved to Dallas and then, in 1995, to Nashville.

In Music City, Martin knew Feek before she ever met him. She first stumbled upon him playing one night at the famous Bluebird Café.

"I pretty much listened to all of his songs and listened to who he was through his music, and I knew," she says. "I knew that I was supposed to spend my life with this guy. I just didn't know when or how.

It would be another two years until they would be actually introduced.

"She's very bold. She knew we were meant to be together and she told me so from the very beginning," Feek recalls. "It took me a little bit to realize she was serious about that. But once we started dating, we dated two months. And then we got engaged, and were engaged two months. And then got married. It was almost like an arranged marriage."

For the first six years of their marriage, Martin and Feek lived their quiet life together in tiny Pottsville, Tenn., performing together only for family and friends. Martin opened up the restaurant with Feek's sister, where she still puts in days making bread and waiting tables whenever music doesn't call. Feek meanwhile established himself as a successful songwriter, penning hits for others such as Blake Shelton's "Some Beach" and Collin Ray's "Someone You Used To Know."

It was only at a friend's insistence that the two began singing together full-time and auditioned for "Can You Duet?"

"It wasn't at all our idea and it was something we were really nervous about," says Martin. "It really helped launch us as a duo ..."

A year later, however, Martin and Feek can't imagine not performing together.

"We do wish we were here at home at our kitchen table more," says Feek. "I'd be reluctant to be away from her if I was chasing something like this all by myself, just because I know it would be a hard road that I may not get down. But together we realize we really have a shot."

KIX On Beale presents Joey & Rory with Justin Moore and Adam Gregory

7 p.m. Thursday in Handy Park on Beale Street. Admission: Free. For more information, visit kix106.com.

KIX on Beale Calendar

July 2: James Otto, Heidi Newfield

July 9: Chuck Wicks, Jessica Harp

July 16: Trent Tomlinson, Dean Brody

July 23: Luke Bryan, Sarah Buxton