Hometown heroes

Duos are a country music tradition. Brooks & Dunn and Montgomery Gentry are the current kings of that hill, but the heritage stretches back to the supremacy of The Judds, further back to Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn, back to Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash and further.

Jackson native John Ramey and country singer Brad Martin want to join the club. Calling themselves Jackson Greenfield after their hometowns -- Martin is from Greenfield, Ohio, population 6,500 -- they are close to signing a recording contract with Curb Records, a Nashville, Tenn., label whose stable of artists includes Tim McGraw, Wynonna and Hank Williams Jr.

They will perform Saturday at the River City Music Festival in Cape Girardeau.

Ramey sings and plays guitar, but since moving to Nashville in 1990 he has made his living writing songs for other people. Four songs he co-wrote ended up on Martin's 2002 debut album "On the Wings of a Honky Tonk Angel." The big hit off that album, "Before I Knew Better," established Martin in the business, and "Rub Me the Right Way," co-written with Ramey and Mike Geiser, made the top 40. But Martin has not recorded another album.

His career got caught up in a merger of record companies. "I decided to step back," he said.

Last February Martin approached Ramey about working together. They'd already been writing together for 10 years and had a new song called "Twisted." "We both wanted to write something more left field," Martin said, "something that had old-school charm but still have a modern song."

Curb Music, the company Martin works for, liked it and wanted to hear more. "We started writing a few other things and singing them together," Ramey said. "It really clicked."

Two heads really are better than one, Ramey said. "We've been writing together so long, we kind of wanted to do something that wasn't quite the same as everything else. It's a different sound."

Ramey says their sound has been described as a cross between a Bakersfield sound ala Merle Haggard and the Everly Brothers, with Johnny Cash's approach to lyrics.

Both men grew up in small towns and both were top athletes in high school. Martin was a state qualifier in wrestling, Ramey was a star quarterback at Jackson High School who also played for Southeast Missouri State University before leaving to study music at Millikin University.

Both grew up in musical families. Martin's father was a country singer who performed around southern Ohio and Kentucky. Ramey's grandfather, the late Homer Gilbert, played trumpet in dance bands and was a member of the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band for 72 years. Ramey's father, John, a reporter and news editor for the Southeast Missourian before his retirement, taught John to play the guitar and schooled him on Bob Dylan's music. Ramey's father and mother still live in Jackson.

So far they have played as a duo at the Douglas Corner Cafe, a Nashville showcase nightclub, and performed with a band before more than 2,000 people at a fair in Martin's hometown. Only the two of them will perform in Cape Girardeau.

They expect a radio single to be released in early spring.