There is a cool moment, preserved for posterity in TV syndication, when Joshua Scott Jones and Meghan Linsey, the duo known as Steel Magnolia, make the connection that changes their lives. It’s cattle call audition day for season two of CMT’s Can You Duet? Josh and Meghan are secretly ambivalent about the whole thing, skeptical that the judges (especially that big-time record executive on the left) are going to get their very unique sound.
But a few bars into the first verse of their song “Ohh La La” we see that record executive have his first ‘Ah Ha’ moment. A blank face cracks into a grin. Then comes the chorus, with its rising swell of surprise and passion. Naomi Judd points at her own goose bumps. And by that point, the record executive is wearing a 100-watt smile.
His name is Scott Borchetta, and his YES vote that day began the journey that would put Steel Magnolia in the winner’s circle of Can You Duet? and on his label, the feisty and independent Big Machine Records. The eagerly awaited debut album you have here also makes its first impression with “Ooh La La,” and if you have a musical bone in your body, you too will be smiling halfway through. Spirited, romantic and elusively different, it’s the perfect three-minute distillation of Josh and Meghan’s fresh, soul-leaning approach to country music. They do not sound like twins in close harmony; rather they’re a study in contrasts that shows how two bold and identifiable voices can mesh together, making something bigger and better.