Formed on the open plains of their home state of Oklahoma, husband and wife duo The Imaginaries’ Maggie McClure (piano, keyboard, vocals) and Shane Henry (guitar, vocals) are finally set to release their long-awaited self-titled debut album, The Imaginaries on March 26, 2021 through ONErpm. Fans can pre-order special signed copies of the album now HERE.
Their single "Revival," a spiritual swampy roots song about finding hope and salvation, will be impacting Americana, AAA, and college radio on February 22, 2021. Listen to it on Spotify HERE. “It came to be as a merging of three separate song ideas,” says Maggie. “Our faith certainly has an impact on our lives and therefore our songwriting, so the themes of the song are complete with biblical references from ‘not storing up treasures on earth’ to the warnings of ‘the love of money’ with an adventurous undertone of spreading the good news.” The video / short film has received a lot of attention on the film festival circuit with its O Brother, Where Art Thou? meets Bonnie and Clyde theme. Watch it HERE (155K+ Views).
Produced by the duo, the album marks the beginning of their journey as a band after both singer songwriters have enjoyed their own successes as solo artists. It began when they traveled to Muscle Shoals, AL to perform a couple of songs for Grammy-Award winning engineer John Cuniberti’s YouTube series called “The OneMic Series.” They had such an amazing experience being there that they decided to return to record their album enlisting the help of session musicians and legendary Muscle Shoals “Swampers,” including bassist David Hood (Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Paul Simon), Little Richard guitarist Kelvin Holly (Jason Isbell, Gregg Allman, Neil Young), bassist Shonna Tucker (John Paul White, The Secret Sisters), and keyboardist NC Thurman (Hank Williams Jr, Gregg Allman, Little Richard). They also flew in their drummer Rob Humphreys(Leonard Cohen, Jason Mraz) for the recording and worked with Chad Copelin (Sufjan Stevens, Christina Perri, Ben Rector) back in Oklahoma for keys and additional production as well as keyboardist Dan Walker (Heart). Watch the EPK style documentary about the album for the Grand Casino Resort’s “Play It Loud” series HERE.
The experience left a profound effect on the duo and what came out of those recording sessions were songs filled with effortless harmonies combined with heartfelt lyrics and real-life lessons inspired by personal experiences. “And we’ve had a lot of those on our journey to release this album,” says Shane. Originally planned for a 2019 release date, the album had several major setbacks beginning when Shane was struck with a serious illness that sidelined him for many months. Following his recovery, the duo was chosen from dozens of competing artists to open for the 16th Annual Brian Setzer Orchestra’s annual Christmas Rocks Tour only for it to be suddenly canceled because Brian came down with a severe case of tinnitus. Then Maggie had unexpected invasive gum surgery which kept her from singing for two months. During this time, they worked diligently on booking shows for Spring/Summer 2020 to support their pending album release when Coronavirus pandemic took hold of the world, so the duo decided to switch gears and release three singles and three videos to build up to the album release.
In addition to “Revival,” The Imaginaries released “Walking On A Wire,” a song written about facing obstacles head on and pushing through to overcome them along with the stunning video shot in the dunes of Little Sahara State Park in Waynoka, OK and Gloss Mountain State Park in Fairview, OK – watch it HERE. "Thinking 'Bout You" is a sincere acoustic-driven song about missing someone you care about but don't get to be with because of distance – watch the video HERE.
After multiple challenges, many career ups and downs, and with the new reality of virtual performances and press interviews, the duo, are looking forward to finally releasing their debut album. "We are so excited for the world to hear The Imaginaries' debut album in its entirety,” says the duo. “The recording experience was amazing, having had the opportunity to collaborate with so many incredibly talented individuals, and we are so proud to finally release this collection of songs.”
