Steve Branch and Marlon Dean grew up in the small Jacksonville suburb of Macclenny, Fla., in an area where music was king. The two got to know one another when Dean’s schoolteacher mother heard Branch, a former student of hers, sing at a county fair talent show and took him under her wing. “Everywhere Steve sang, we were usually there,” Dean recalls. “He could sound like anybody he wanted to, from George Jones to George Strait.” The two gradually began singing together, whether onstage at local bars and festivals or at home during Dean family gatherings. “Christmas, Thanksgiving, any holiday,” says Branch. “We’d make up a holiday just to get together and sing. That’s where we got it.”

“It” is the natural way the two men sing together, the effortless harmonizing that is only one of the highlights of their upcoming self-titled debut album. “It sends chills up my spine how well it works together,” Dean says. “We both have that North Florida phrasing.”

In awe of his friend’s voice, Dean determined to make songwriting his area of expertise. He headed for Nashville about eight years ago to pursue that dream, and eventually found guidance from veteran songwriter and producer Michael Huffman (who has penned hits for everyone from Conway Twitty to Montgomery Gentry). “He knows what a hit is,” Dean observes. “He’s a great friend and a great mentor.” He also knows a great voice when he hears one. So when Huffman heard Dean’s demo for a song he had written with Branch, “Your Ol’ Lady’s Gone,” he was immediately impressed with the vocalist Dean had recruited to perform on it. “He said, ‘Who’s that singing? That’s a great singer,” Dean recalls. “I said, ‘That’s Steve Branch, we grew up singing together.’”

Huffman suggested that Branch hightail it up to Nashville to rejoin his friend in a duo they dubbed, naturally enough, Branch and Dean. (Branch’s name comes first because, Dean jokes, “We arm-wrestled right-handed and left-handed, and he won both times.”) After 15 years of friendship, the twosome was at last officially in business together. “We were thrown together in the last year, but I think in a sense we’ve always been a duo,” Dean says. ‘Now we have the full package—it’s good singing, but it’s also the writing and the playing.”

Branch & Dean

Upon Branch’s arrival in Music City the two immediately set to work with producer Huffman on their first album. “It’s country, but it’s not what you usually hear,” Branch says of the results. “It’s good and different. You’re going to hear a hint of the older stuff, but I really think we’ll have some 16-year-olds that are going to be proud to play this when they’re riding around on the backroads. It’s fun, rocking, traditional country music.”

Among the songs they concentrated on first was “Your Ol’ Lady’s Gone,” which began life several years ago when Branch was working as a truck driver. “I’ve always liked yodeling,” says Branch, whose influences range from Lefty Frizzell to Wayne Newton. “So I’m going down the road doing the yodeling thing, and you know when you yodel you go, ‘Yodel-a-dee-oh…’ I got to thinking, ‘Man, that sounds like you’re saying, “Your old lady.”’” He and Dean got together the following day and wrote a song based around Branch’s instantly familiar, mind-invadingly catchy hook. They knew right away they had something special. “The first time he sang this song onstage, the whole front row looked like they just saw Santa Claus,” Dean says with a chuckle. “That’s what a hit is.”

But there’s much more to Branch and Dean than that irresistible tune, which is now their debut single and video. Among the other songs they laid down is “The Dash,” a contemplative ballad inspired by the loss of Dean’s great-uncle. “He was a sheriff in our county for 20 years,” Dean says. “He always had us singing, he loved Steve’s singing. We grew up at Uncle Joe’s.”

Somewhere in between the raucous “Your Ol’ Lady’s Gone” and “The Dash” is “16 to 21,” a spirited look back at the wild-and-free years of late teenagerdom and early adulthood. “Everybody remembers those years,” observes Dean. “Everything’s fun because it’s for the first time. Those are the years of the first time.”

Now Branch and Dean are getting to enjoy some first times of their own all over again, as they take on the music world together. They’re determined to make the most of the opportunity they’ve created for themselves. “I left my backup plan at home when I packed for Nashville,” Dean says. “So I just hope people get to hear the music. If people hear it, I think they’ll get it. I hope we get that shot.”

With the combination of talent and hard work that has gotten them this far, there’s plenty of reason to believe Branch and Dean will get the shot they’re looking for. “If we can make a living doing what we love to do, that’s the dream,” Branch says. “We’re doing this because we love it. Honestly, that’s what it is. It’s our dream. Everybody wants to go after their dream, and we’re going after ours.”