Sometimes, solo artists join a television competition show, compete with each other and go their separate ways after their respective runs. But sometimes, just sometimes, the two artists get coupled as roommates, hit off really well, become best buddies, and join forces to form a promising new country duo. The latter is certainly the case for Black River recording artists Pryor Baird and Kaleb Lee—better known as Pryor & Lee.
The singers crossed paths in 2018 as contestants and roomies on the Blind Auditions on Season 14 of The Voice. While they are some of the new kids on the country music block as a duo, both artists have been pursuing solo careers and touring the country for a long time. In 2019, Pryror Baird released an EP that features hit songwriters like Trent Willmon and Easton Corbin, while Kaleb Lee shared four singles, including a collaboration with Kelly Clarkson on the Shane McAnally, Josh Osborne and Brandy Clark-penned, “I Dream In Southern.”
Committed to their passion and music careers, the hardworking talents merged as Pryor & Lee and signed with Nashville-based label Black River Entertainment in January 2020. However, what ensued soon after was something neither the label, duo or anyone could have fathomed—the COVID-19 global pandemic. As everything came to an abrupt halt, the pair had to find new ways to introduce themselves to country radio and fans with their ebullient debut single, “Y’allsome.”
A year later, as live music and touring kicks back up, the country duo are fired up to hit the road running and connect with fans through their music, including two brand new releases: the sentimental “Good Ol Dogs and God” and timely uplifting anthem, “Carry On.”
Sounds Like Nashville got to chat with the rising duo recently to find out more about their chance meeting on The Voice, signing a record deal after, and of course, launching with three incredible songs including their debut single, “Y’allsome.”
Introducing the next artists you need to “Get To Know”: Pryor & Lee
SLN: How did both of you get into music?
Pryor: I haven’t known anything else in my life except for music. I got a guitar when I was three and knew from a very young age that is what I wanted to do. I’ve only done side jobs and stuff to make sure that I could continue on this career and path. [There was] never a plan B. It’s scary. I don’t recommend it! (laughs)
Lee: Well, I started taking guitar lessons when I was eight, and I think that’s when my mom and Dad finally [gave in]. I had been begging them for a while to get a guitar to play and sing. So, that kind of started it all for me. I went through high school and college and found out that I enjoyed it a lot more than I ever thought I would, and it’s kind of evolved over the years to this. I’m very thankful and excited to be a part of this duo now and be doing it as a career.
How did y’all land the auditions on The Voice?
Pryor: I had a buddy who was on [The Voice] a couple of seasons before we were and he got me some sort of private interview, so I didn’t stand in line for three days, nothing like that too. I just went and tried out and they said “OK.” So I went to California, waited a long time, and then I met [Kaleb Lee].
Lee: I was actually not doing music at the time, and someone reached out to me via a YouTube video that I posted years and years ago and made a comment about it. I happened to be with an old buddy in Nashville at the time I got the comment and I made a joke about it like, “Hey, this is pretty funny, ain’t it?” And he’s like, “Man, no. I know that guy!” And I said, “Well, OK. So it’s not a troll or any kind of spam or anything like that. It’s a legitimate dude that’s recruiting for The Voice.” So I reached back out and a month later, I went from not doing music at all to being on The Voice stage. I guess the rest is history as they say.
What has being on a show like The Voice taught y’all?
Lee: The show definitely taught us a lot. I mean we call it a “boot camp” a lot. You know, you go through a show like that and you’re exposed to so many pieces of this industry at such a high level, all at one time. To be on that stage and meet those people and then play with them and be in front of those types of coaches and that many eyeballs, it would take years and years and stages and stages to accumulate that experience. That’s why I would say, the biggest thing I learned was just a baptism by fire, if you will, of the music industry. And, we were able to take that with us when we left. Now that we have those experiences, we know how to conduct ourselves, what stages we want to be on, and the caliber of people that we want around us.
What was life like after coming off The Voice? How did you guys land a record deal after?
Pryor: You go from never being on national television, not thinking anything about it, to being on TV, then you come off it, ride that wave for a little bit and then it goes away. Literally I thought my career was over, and the next day, we got a record deal. It literally changed in 12 hours for me. We’ve both had solo careers, and we were both trying to chase that dream down. It works out for some people, and for some it doesn’t. Lee called me on Monday and he said, “Hey, we have a meeting tomorrow,” and we went in as a duo with a dream, a song and no name. If it wasn’t for The Voice, if it wasn’t for all those things happening, then we wouldn’t have met each other and we wouldn’t be here today. So, life is completely different, but for the better.
Lee: To Pryor’s point, we chased the solo thing enough to know that we gave it all we had. And so in the background, we had been talking about this idea of a duo just to put another iron in the fire. We had gone into the studio prior to this label meeting to record a song just so we had it when and if we were going to be able to do this and pull [being a duo] off. So that meeting came about, and it literally turned everything on a dime. Like Pryor said, from solo careers, thinking about a duo, almost career over like ready to just pack up, go make some money, live our lives and get a regular job. Literally 12 hours later, we walked out of our very first label meeting as a duo with a record deal offer and, here we are!
How has it been like launching as artists during a pandemic? Has there been any silver linings for y’all?
Lee: We signed with Black River in January of 2020 and COVID shut us down in March of 2020. So it went from pedal to the metal to all brakes and no gas. It just completely stopped us in our tracks. The momentum we had was gone. So this past year’s taught us patience, and a lot of it. The silver lining, in my opinion, was that we had the opportunity to take our time as a brand new duo that hadn’t been playing together and didn’t even have a name before our record deal signing. It gave us an opportunity to go, “Hey, what do we want this to look like, sound like and feel like?” You know, we had the opportunity to take a breath and really make this and our music what we really wanted it to be, versus hitting the ground running and then just trying to keep up. (laughs) We would have taken that too, that would have been awesome, but the silver lining is that we’ve gotten a really great opportunity to put everything under a microscope and get it dialed in and ready. Now that we’re back on the road, we’re way more confident about who we are and the songs we’re playing.
What made y’all go with “Y’allsome” as the introductory single to Pryor & Lee?
Pryor: With both of us again being solo artists, we knew what we wanted and what our sound was going to be like. The first time they sent us this group of songs, we listened to all [of them] and it’s like, “Oh yeah, kind of like that, kind of like that, OK, I don’t like that.” Then the first time I heard “Y’allsome,” I said, “Oh God, that’s it! That’s the sound we want!” That’s what I was thinking, and [Lee] was thinking the same thing.
Lee: Yeah, we were in two different places when we got “Y’allsome” sent our way. I remember getting on the phone after we listened to all those songs and [my top pick] was also “Y’allsome.” We also had this idea in the back of our minds that we wanted people to have a good time. We want people to come to a live show, let loose, and feel like they just went to the best country-rock concert they’ve ever been to. So that was our dream and vision, and when we heard that song, it just seemed to fit in really, really well.
“Good Ol’ Dogs And God” is a country song to a T. How did y’all chance upon that on?
Lee: “Good Ol’ Dogs And God” came out of a song meeting that we had with our producer (Doug Johnson). We had listened for a couple hours to a bunch of songs and were trying to find something special in the mix. It was at the end of that meeting that our producer said, “Hey, I just wrote this song that I’d love for you guys to hear.” It wasn’t even part of the agenda or on the list for us to cut necessarily. But he knew how much we loved our puppies. We’ve got between the two of us, three sister dogs, and they are our family beyond what you would ever imagine. (laughs) He knew we would love the song, but I don’t know if he knew we would love it so much that we would move it up to the top and want to cut it. I think because we were so connected to it on an emotional level, it just became something really special in the studio as well, and quickly rose to the top as far as songs that we would release.
“Carry On” is such a feel-good song with an encouraging message. Was it one that you both knew you wanted to record right off the bat?
Pryor: We like songs that have uplifting messages. We heard it and knew right then and said, “You know, this is a song that resonates with us, what we believe, what we want our sound to be, and this is a song that [doesn’t sound like anything we had yet].” It’s a good anthemic song!
What can fans expect next from Pryor & Lee?
Lee: A lot of fun… A lot of pent-up fun! (laughs) Our calendars are getting booked out. I was just looking at it this morning, and we got the next two months where we’re on the road every weekend! We’re looking forward to the rest of the year being just that. We’re also in the studio cutting five new songs right now. I don’t know what the release plan is going to be exactly yet, but I would say of those five, I like all five! (laughs)
Lastly, what is one thing y’all want fans to know about Pryor & Lee both as people, and as a country duo?
Pryor: As people, we are normal, regular people. We’re two guys out here chasing down a dream, playing music, being good humans, trying to make the world a better place one song at a time and have a good time.
Lee: Yeah, we put our pants on the same way everybody else does in the morning, and we work as hard as everybody else does for what they want in life. We realize that we can lose it [instantly] if we’re not careful. So, for us, we want people to know that we love what we do. We’re grateful that they buy our music, come to shows and allow us to do what we do. We feel indebted to the people around us and our fans. I guess, what we want to say is: thank you very much.