Considering Sonny and Cher and Captain and Tennille, does the world need any more husband-and-wife acts, questioned Paul Jefferson at the prospect of becoming a singing duo with his wife Lisa Brokop.
“I shied away from that,” admitted Jefferson, who was never a fan of the “too lovey-dovey” husband and wife teams that seemed to stage their relationships — including mock bickering sessions — for the audience.
Yet every time Jefferson sang a duet with Brokop, he noticed fans absolutely loved the natural chemistry between them.
The wildly supportive crowd reaction made him realize that, as a couple, he and Brokop were reaching people in a way they never did as solo performers. “It was kind of special and unexpected.”
So eventually, Jefferson and Brokop quit fighting their duo status and instead embraced it, formally becoming The Jeffersons.
They perform on Sunday at the Central Music Festival, just north of Red Deer.
You won’t find any false kissy-face affection or staged tiffs. “We love to keep it real,” said Brokop, 38, who has written about the ups and downs of married life.
“Some of our subject matter is not so pretty, not so nice,” she admitted. But Brokop believes it touches on themes that everyone can relate to.
For instance, Crazy on Me, a song the couple wrote together for the duo’s The Jeffersons: Vol. 1 debut album, is about how “crazy Paul is. And I’m crazy, too, yet somehow we fit together perfectly.”
Brokop affectionately mentions her husband’s oil-stained hair in the song, saying it came from seeing a bleary-eyed Jefferson emerge from the garage after spending all night tinkering with his car engine.
“Paul’s a real Renaissance man,” she said. “It’s both a blessing and a curse — he flies planes, he fixes cars, he plays tennis. . . .”
“I try to fix things,” interjects Jefferson.
The 52-year-old singer (who jokes he was raised in the country music heartland of San Francisco) actually studied bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley. “My father was a guitar teacher and he did a little bit of entertaining in his younger years. He instilled in me that a music career was too difficult — don’t do it.”
Enrolling in bioengineering was a desperate move, Jefferson admitted. “It was like, please, for the love of God, let’s do something other than music!”
But music kept drawing him back in.
Jefferson co-wrote That’s As Close as I’ll Get to Loving You, which became a No. 1 hit single for Aaron Tippins. He met Brokop through the music business.
She’s a Surrey, B.C., native who has released six studio albums and has charted more than 20 singles on the country music charts in Canada, including Better Off Broken. Several of her hits crossed over to the American country charts, including Give Me a Ring Sometime and Take That.
Brokop, who recently became a mom to their daughter, Ivy, has no plans to resume a solo career. She believes that touring with Jefferson makes sense, from a family perspective.
The couple try not to stay away from Ivy for more than a few days at a time, during which Brokop’s mother pulls babysitting duty. When The Jeffersons do a longer tour this month, Brokop said Ivy will accompany them.
So far, her hubby believes merging their careers and personal lives “is just a lot of fun. It makes up for a lot of hard times on the road. And there’s a great public reaction.”
Besides, not all husband and wife duos are cheesy — take Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash.
Weekend passes for the Central Music Festival are $78 ($49 for teens/seniors, or $185 for families). Single-day passes are available at the gate only. Passes for all ages are $20 Friday, $55 Saturday and $30 Sunday. For more information, go to www.centralmusicfest.com.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com