The deeply personal track with a universal message — The Imaginaries “Things Are Gonna Be Alright”
Husband and wife duo, The Imaginaries, Shane Henry (guitar, vocals) and Maggie McClure (piano, keyboard, vocals). Chemistry, deep commitment, faith, catching the music bug early. Which artists did your families play the most in your homes growing up?
My family played a lot of Vince Gill, Bonnie Raitt, Amy Grant, The Beach Boys and The Bee Gees growing up. Also, whenever the radio was on, which was often, it was tuned in to the local Oldies station. So, I grew up on a lot of music from the 1950s-1980s. My dad also loved bluegrass and would play it around the house occasionally. — Maggie
There were always records playing in our house as a kid… The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen and B.B. King to name a few. — Shane
Maggie, Norman, Oklahoma native. First keyboard from your parents when you were just a year old, followed by a karaoke machine seven years later. Meeting Bonnie Raitt made a huge impression. Finding your voice in middle school after turning to music to help find your way after parents’ divorce and the passing of two grandparents over the course of the same year. “Music became my only way to communicate and to make sense of what I was feeling when words alone were at most times too intimidating.” What was the moment you decided that music would be your career path?
I started writing songs at age 8, but it wasn’t probably until I was 13 years old when I made the conscious decision that music would be my career path. — Maggie
Shane, Verden, Oklahoma native. Dad played guitar and shared his love of the music of The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, and Jimi Hendrix. Seeing two concerts (Tom Petty and another with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and Bonnie Raitt) inspired you to learn the guitar. This led you to Minneapolis and the start of your career. What song has been the most challenging to play live?
I started playing in my first band at the age of 15. We played a majority of blues and blues/rock cover songs, but we had a few originals that I wrote. I remember early on my band wanted to do “Little Wing” by Jimi Hendrix. I spent time sitting in my bedroom for hours learning it note for note like the record. — Shane
Solo careers to a duo. Songs featured in various Hallmark Channel movies, feature films and more. Is the songwriting process different when you are writing specifically for a movie?
Yes, the songwriting process is very different when we are writing specially for a movie versus for the band/an album. When writing for film, we have to consider what’s happening in the scene, the tone the music needs to set, if the song is being performed on camera or in the background and how it is being utilized. We also must consider who will be singing the song when writing melodies and picking keys — if it’s an actor, guessing their range to the best of our ability; if it’s us singing the song, placing it in a key where it fits our voices best. — Maggie
Debut album, released last year, chronicles your couple’s journey. After traveling to Muscle Shoals, Alabama to perform songs for Grammy-Award winning engineer John Cuniberti’s YouTube series called “The OneMic Series,” which showcases recording artists performing two songs each around one AEA R88 stereo ribbon microphone. You returned to record the record with the same musicians, known as the Swampers, “With their experience and background, they brought so much musicality and life to these recordings. The album was tracked live with everyone playing in the room, which made the performances authentic and organic.” Which live album would you consider the best one ever made?
Donny Hathaway’s Live album recorded at the Bitter End in NYC hands down one of the most incredible musical performances ever recorded. — Shane
Carole King & James Taylor Live at The Troubadour — Maggie
Setbacks, for health reasons and the pandemic, led to you releasing three songs.
“Revival,” a spiritual swampy roots song about finding hope and salvation,
“Walking On A Wire,” a song written about facing obstacles head on and pushing through to overcome them, and
“Thinking ‘Bout You,” a song about missing someone you care about but don’t get to be with because of distance. Did the time away from live performing lead you to new opportunities?
Our time away from touring did lead to many opportunities. We kept performing and did weekly livestream concerts for a while when the pandemic first started. We found livestream shows to be a very exciting way to connect with fans from all over the world who may not necessarily be able to attend a show in person. This is also when we started writing songs and producing them for the feature film, A Cowgirl’s Song. In all, we spent about 16 months working on the film from Jan. 2021 — April 2022. We also spent some time working on our crafts as actors, working with coach and veteran actor Darryl Cox as we prepared for our co-starring roles in the film. We ended up producing 11 songs total for the soundtrack with seven of them being our original songs. We collaborated with musicians virtually recording the soundtrack from our home studio with one of our dear friends and collaborators, Justin Glasco, as he tracked drums and bass to our piano/guitar/vocal tracks. Then we built the songs from there. The last few years really opened our eyes to the possibilities that are out there with new technology. — Maggie
Cowgirls N’ Angels movie franchise. “Writer-director Timothy Armstrong licensed my song “Good Morning and Good Night” in the opening credits of his original film Cowgirls N’ Angels, which was also filmed here in Oklahoma. He lives in Los Angeles, and when we moved out there in 2011, we became pretty close with Tim and his family. He started asking us to be involved with his projects.” Are you working on any new projects together?
With A Cowgirl’s Song just being released on Netflix, we’re doing all we can to see that film through for the next couple months. We are having conversations now though about possible future projects with Tim and others as well. — Maggie
A Cowgirl’s Song, the fourth in the series. You took on your biggest roles to date in this feature, where you play love interests. A musical coming-of-age story that centers on Hailey Mays (Savannah Lee May), an Oklahoma teenager who longs to become a country music star like her grandma but suffers from stage fright. Her sister, Brooke (Darci Lynne), used to be a barrel racer with big rodeo dreams but gave them up after she was injured in a car accident. Their once-famous grandma, Erin Mays (Cheryl Ladd), has declined to perform since her beloved husband was killed in that same accident. When the girls’ dad, Dean (Jason Alan Smith), naively tries to help a pal and gets in trouble with the law, Hailey, Brooke and Erin must put aside their fears if they’re going to help him get out of jail. You’ve shared that “the script was definitely a road map for all the songs that were needed for this movie.” Which song was the most challenging to write and why?
We wrote four songs for the film with writer/director Timothy Armstrong, “Miles To Go,” “Hailey’s Comet,” “A Cowgirl’s Song,” and “Party Time” (which we also brought Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Jeff Silbar on for this song). Tim is not necessarily a musician, but his writing tendencies have made it more natural for him to write songs. The writing process for “Miles To Go,” “Hailey’s Comet,” and “A Cowgirl’s Song” lasted about one month per song where Tim had initially set up the scene/song in the script with some lyric ideas. We would come in and suggest song references, talk tempos/vibe, instrumentation and more before beginning the writing process. Then it was back and forth from there until we had a final song and moved on to the next one. I think “Hailey’s Comet” was the most challenging to write as we did an almost complete rewrite with it during the collaboration process. It was well worth it though as we were all very happy with the final result. — Maggie
The lead single, “Oklahoma Stars,” is a cinematic love song that parallels your own romance. “The story of our characters in A Cowgirl’s Song, Maddie and Colin, was certainly an inspiration behind the song, but what’s really special is that the song also reflects the true beginnings of our dating relationship.” What are some positives that came from working over Zoom with collaborator Shane Alexander during the pandemic?
We had written a song on our debut album, “Blue Sky” with Shane Alexander, that we love and just felt he was the right person to write this new song with. We knew it needed to be minimal in production and deliver a message that we felt we could say in a special way working with Shane (Alexander). We spent a lot of time getting the song just right over multiple Zoom sessions (with him in CA and us in OK), and what’s even cooler is that he was on Zoom with us when we were recording vocals, which made a huge difference in our performances. “Oklahoma Stars” was certainly co-produced by us and Shane Alexander. — Maggie
Cover of Cole Porter and Robert Fletcher’s classic western tune, “Don’t Fence Me In,” in the opening credits. Filmed in and around Chickasha, the movie also features an appearance by real-life barrel racer Amberley Snyder, who figured out how to get back on her horse only four months after a car wreck left her paralyzed from the waist down. She continues to compete and is a motivational speaker. If you were to write a song about Snyder’s journey how would the chorus go?
Amberley is an amazing person and inspiration. The first thing that comes to my mind is “get back up again” so maybe that would be how the chorus would go. — Maggie
“You Remind Me.” During the filming of a scene for the movie, “It hit me hard in that moment. Gratitude. God’s big picture. A simple song & prayer from my heart that came to me from above while living in LA (that I never did a voice memo of — thank God I remembered it) that we decided to record last minute on a whim in Muscle Shoals, AL that ended up on the Imaginaries debut album turned out to be the perfect song for this scene. In that moment on set I was reminded to tune in when inspiration speaks and that you just never know how something you create can make such an impact.” What would you say has been the most unusual inspiration for a song you’ve written?
I randomly was hired to perform at a funeral by a musician that I had just met a few days prior. I quickly said yes, then had no idea what song to sing. After finding more info on the musician’s father who had passed away, I ended up writing a song for him called “The Other Side.” I wanted to sing a song that would bring hope and healing, and it ended up being a very special song. We released it as a single a couple years ago as well. — Shane
Next release, “Things Are Gonna Be Alright,” on Sept. 9. Written by Shane and Jeff Silbar (“Wind Beneath My Wings”), it delivers a universal and relevant message of hope to listeners. Read that it is a deeply personal track for you — how so?
On June 22 of 2019, we were in the studio finishing up The Imaginaries album. I started having this crazy pain in my right side. I ignored it at first but then later that evening, I had Maggie take me to the emergency room. My appendix ruptured, and I had to go into immediate surgery. It was a brutal recovery for me as I developed an infection a few days after the operation. I remember being back at home five days after the operation and just feeling so restless. I went into my studio at 4 a.m., picked up my acoustic guitar and the song just started writing itself. I was so sick that my family was empathetic and concerned about my health struggles. I wrote this song for them to let them know I’d get through it and that “things would be alright.” I went to NAMM in January of 2020 and ended up playing this song for my good friend and co-writer, Jeff Silbar. He really liked it and helped me finish the bridge. Little did we know that a worldwide pandemic was about to hit and change everyone’s life… the song certainly took on a new meaning, and I knew we had to record it and get the message out there. — Shane