On The Row: Joe & Martina

Pictured (L-R): Martina, Joe. Photo: Haley Crow/MusicRow

Joe & Martina, the married country duo formerly known as Terra Bella, recently offered new music during a visit to the MusicRow offices.

“It didn’t seem like people were getting it any more after six years so we thought, ‘Let’s just use our real names.’ We are all about authenticity,” Joe said, addressing the name change.

Joe was Luke Combs’ first bass player on the road, and co-wrote “Don’t Tempt Me With A Good Time,” which became the namesake of Combs’ first headlining tour.

“His parents have the Gold record and we knew Platinum was just around the corner on this song, and now we have the Platinum one. Gold records are the things dreams are made of.”

These self-described “farm kids” from California offered renditions of several songs, including “Middle of Nowhere, U.S.A.” “Where I’m from is open range and 30 miles one way to anywhere you want to go,” Martina said.

They recently released a music video for the track. “We just wanted it to release it directly to our fans,” she said.

“We’re like the musical equivalent of farm-to-table,” Joe quipped. “That sounds like a good publishing company name—Farm-to-Table Music,” he joked.

Pictured (L-R): Martina, MusicRow Magazine chart director Alex Parry, Joe. Photo: Haley Crow/MusicRow

“We left a California horse ranch, sold all our horses and moved out here,” Joe said.

“It’s so great because people ask us, ‘When will you know you’ve made it in the industry?’ And I always say, ‘When we can have a piece of land here with horses in our back yard.’ That’s when we’ll know,” Martina said.

They also played the unreleased track “Give Me Back The ‘90s.” “I just got the rough cut back of this song,” Joe said.

He wrote it with Johnny Garcia, who is a longtime guitar player and bandleader for Trisha Yearwood.

“It was just reminiscing on the ‘90s. He was like, ‘I wish you could have lived on those tours, because it was just so different.’”

They brought in plenty of musicians that played on iconic ‘90s country albums. “They definitely played some of those ‘90s licks, but it still sounds modern,” Joe says.

“It’s ‘90s without the mullet,” Martina adds, and hints that there may be some ‘90s country artists added to final version of the song.

Joe & Martina with MusicRow staffers. Photo: MusicRow

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Jessica Nicholson

Jessica Nicholson serves as the Managing Editor for MusicRow magazine. Her previous music journalism experience includes work with Country Weekly magazine and Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) magazine. She holds a BBA degree in Music Business and Marketing from Belmont University. She welcomes your feedback at jnicholson@musicrow.com.

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