“Like a needle in the groove on your favorite record,” this duet has the want-to if you’ve got the time.
Kansas meets Colorado in this team-up of Logan Mize and Clare Dunn on the tune “Get ’Em Together.” The duet featuring Dunn will likely be on a forthcoming album from Mize early next year. Produced by Daniel Agee (Jessie James Decker, HBO’s Big Little Lies), the song was written by Dallas Davidson (Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan), Mark Holman (Florida Georgia Line), Ben Hayslip (George Strait, Rodney Atkins, Thomas Rhett), and Justin Wilson (Craig Campbell, Michael Ray) and flirtatiously showcases his “serrated-edge vocals” (Rolling Stone Country) harmoniously blended with her signature deep-sung soul.
We talked with Mize and Dunn about the new tune.
Cowboys & Indians: Introduce yourselves. What would you like people to know about where you’re from, how you got into music, how you got together musically?
Logan Mize: Hey, I’m Logan. I’m in Andale, Kansas, and I’ve been into music since I was a kid riding around in my dad’s Jeep on dirt roads listening to his Elton John tapes. I’ve always been a fan of Clare, and I think we both jive pretty well, both being more from Western states rather than the Southern-dominated country scene.
Clare Dunn: Hey, y’all. I’m Clare and I grew up on a farm and ranch in southeast Colorado (Two Buttes) and the Oklahoma panhandle. Music has been my escape and companion since I can remember. Growing up driving tractors or long hours alone spent driving through cattle or hauling water to them, music was all I ever daydreamed about and still is. When I first moved to Nashville I heard about Logan and was excited there was another artist from a neighboring state there (not many of us from the West that far east ). That was how I got introduced to his music and have been a fan of it since. Logan makes his own swath through country music, and so when this opportunity came up, I jumped at the chance!
C&I: What’s the story of “Get ’Em Together” and how you came to record it together? What were the sessions like and who’s playing on the track?
Mize: It’s something fun and lighthearted. We all need a little more of that right now. The recording was all done remotely, isolation style, so none of us were together at all in the recording process. Dan Agee masterminded the whole track and I believe played every instrument besides the drums.
Dunn: Haha! This pretty much sums it up! I’ll just add that Carla Wallace first played me the song, and I was just head-bobbing the whole time! I think right after I left her office I texted Logan and just said, “Wow —what a freaking great song you got!” congratulating him, never thinking it would lead to a duet. I just was a genuine fan of what Logan did with it.
C&I: What’s your favorite part in the lyrics? In the music?
Mize: My favorite part is when Clare says her farm is 50 miles from the city because it's not even remotely accurate. Clare's farm is more like 500 miles from the city.
Dunn: I think Dallas Davidson wrote this one. I’ve always admired his simplicity with words, but yet it always feels fresh. I think that’s one of the charms and strengths of country music and that definitely shines on this song. As a writer, when I first heard it, I had the common admiration/jealous reaction of “Dang! Why didn’t I think of that?! So good!” Haha. Not to sound like a cop-out, but I really do just enjoy the whole thing. Everything works together on this one. I think when the music complements the lyric and vice versa like it does in this song, it’s really something special.
C&I: What was it like to balance vocals in a duet? Any duets (past and/or current) you particularly looked to for an examples of the kind of vibe and music you wanted the song to have?
Mize: I sang it first by myself and when I heard it back I felt like the song needed to be a duet. I didn’t feel like I was really selling it on my own. Clare gave the song the spark it needed.
Dunn: Logan is very humble. This song was already amazing without me, but I loved it so much I couldn’t resist jumping in. I grew up listening to Brooks & Dunn, Foster & Lloyd, Eagles, the Judds, Sam & Dave, and all those groups/duos have a way of blending together in a particular way that only those voices can. That’s always my goal, whether I’m jumping up on stage to sit in with someone or making a record together. It’s all about that blend. And it’s always fun for me to step outside of my normal world and blend into another one for something new.
C&I: Anything else you’d like our readers to know about the song, your music, your plans?
Mize: If this song does well enough, I plan on using the money to buy a team of mules and a chuckwagon. When that happens, can we get a followup feature?
Dunn: Cowboys & Indians has always been a part of our house growing up to today, and it’s just an honor to be featured. This is our way of life out here and especially in 2020. I have spent most of the year on the farm/ranch where I grew up, while still making music and releasing it from my studio on the ranch), and I’m not even sure I wanna go back to Tennessee now! I’ve missed my roots so much since I’ve been gone, but I didn’t know just how much I missed them until I got back to ’em.
For more on Clare Dunn, visit her website, or follow her on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
For more on Logan Mize, visit his website, or follow him on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
Images courtesy Shore Fire Media
