By: Alanna Horner-Conaway

All the pieces seemed to have fallen into place for Keith Burns and Ira Dean when they auditioned Michelle Poe to fill the vacant lead singer position for their band Trick Pony in 2008. Just one day after the audition, Dean announced his departure from the band leaving Burns and Poe questioning their next move.

“I knew I couldn’t be Trick Pony by myself,” Burns recalls. “It just didn’t feel right.”

“In my heart I really didn’t want to sing Trick Pony music for the rest of my life,” admits Michelle Poe. “It would’ve been more meaningful to me to write our own music and perform our own stuff.”

With those thoughts in their minds, Michelle Poe and Keith Burns began writing together to see what path their unified musical creativeness would lead them down. A month later, they approached their label with the idea of bringing a fresh duo to the country music scene – Burns & Poe.

After taking a solid year off from touring to write, Burns & Poe have put together an album of all original material set to be released early this fall.

“It was pretty cool in the way we did it,” says Burns. “Michelle was wide open to everything. I played her a few things that I had, and she picked a couple of ideas that she really liked. So we started getting hooks and titles together. We’d go in [to writing] knowing that was kind of the direction that we wanted to go. We had that common ground and then, it was off to the races.”

“I’m not a screamer singer,” Poe adds. “I don’t want everything to be rowdy like Trick Pony’s style was. [Former Trick Pony lead singer Heidi Newfield and my] voices are totally different. We tailor the songs we write together thinking of the master plan of it being a duet. What can he sing and what can I sing that makes this song great?”

The album’s first single, “It’s Always A Woman,” was penned by the duo along with Don Goodman and is currently at radio.

Burns & Poe isn’t Poe’s first taste of being an artist. In 2006, she made some noise with her song “Just One of the Boys” on DreamWorks. The day her album was scheduled to be release, the label folded.

“Everything happens for a reason,” she says with a smile. “If that didn’t happen then I wouldn’t be here now. It’s all a blessing.”

Poe continued playing live as the bassist for Dierks Bentley and Hank Williams, Jr before auditioning to fill Newfield’s lead singer role in 2008. Now, as part of a duo, Michelle Poe is able to experience the excitement of sharing a stage with someone who wants the success as much as she does.

“The whole process is more fun,” she beams. “It’s less pressure on you when you’re in a duo instead of a solo act.”

“Michelle and I both have that experience behind us. Now we get to go out there and feel confident,” says Burns. “I certainly don’t think we’re going to have that deer in the headlights look when we’re doing our shows.”

As they prepare to hit the road hard and spread the word of their music, the duo likens their music and outlook to one of their album’s tracks, “AIN’T YOUR EVERYDAY WHISKEY.”

“This ain’t your everyday duo,” Burns grins. “We’re Burns & Poe. We have our own cool thing going. I couldn’t be happier.”

Tags: burns & poe, burns and poe, keith burns, michelle poe, trick pony

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