MusicRowPics: Dan+Shay

Pennsylvania native Dan Smyers and Arkansas native Shay Mooney, better known as Dan+Shay, recently stopped by the MusicRow offices to perform songs from their upcoming debut album.

Together, the duo’s career has risen at lightening speed. Dan+Shay have been performing together for barely a year; in that time they have been signed to Warner Bros. Records, released the debut single “19 You + Me” that currently sits at No. 22 on the MusicRow Country Breakout chart, and will soon hit the road with Hunter Hayes and then Blake Shelton‘s Ten Times Crazier Tour, which also features The Band Perry and Neal McCoy.

Smyers and Mooney first met at a house party in a run-down area of Nashville, where Smyers lived at the time. “We had no heat and needed to keep warm, so we bought sheets and put them up in the living room,” Smyers recalled. Mooney added, “They had draped all these sheets everywhere so it looked pretty cool. You can imagine my surprise the first time I walked in.” The next day, Mooney and Smyers penned their first song together.

During the visit at MusicRow, Dan+Shay performed “19 You + Me,” their first single on Warner Music Nashville; Mooney and Smyers co-wrote the song with Danny Orton. They also offered a soulful cover of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’,” and the original tune “First Time Feeling” which was co-written with Ben Hayslip. “Getting to go into this room with songwriters whose songs you have listened to all your life is an accomplishment in itself,” said Smyers.

The duo’s forthcoming album was produced by Smyers and executive produced by Scott Hendricks.