In early September, The Imaginaries, the husband-and-wife duo composed of Maggie McClure and Shane Henry, released “Things Are Gonna Be Alright,” a deeply personal track with a universal message. The song was co-written by Henry and Jeff Silbar (“Wind Beneath My Wings”).
The origin of the song came as the pair were finishing their debut Imaginaries album in the studio. Ignoring pain in his side, Shane finally decided he needed to go to the hospital, and his appendix ruptured on the way. After surgery, once he returned home, he found himself too uncomfortable to sleep.
“Somewhere in the middle of the night,” he said, “I grabbed my acoustic guitar, went out in the studio, and the song just started kind of writing itself. I had a piece of paper, and I was writing chords as fast as I could and recorded a voice memo of it.” With the verses and chorus completed, he says he sat on the song for a while before he showed it to Maggie.
A few months later at NAMM, just before the pandemic hit, he showed it to Jeff Silbar, one of his co-writer friends, who loved it, but said it needed a bridge. He helped write the bridge and tweak the lyrics—and then the pandemic hit.
“We hadn’t even released the Imaginaries debut album,” said Henry, “so I didn’t have it recorded at that time, but it’s funny how that song took on a new meaning. With everything everyone’s been through. I felt it was time to release the song to remind people that no matter what they’re going through, things are gonna be okay. It’s a message that I needed to hear for myself. I wanted to convince myself that I wasn’t going to feel like this forever.”
Maggie added, “With so much uncertainty, not knowing what’s going on can drive people crazy. It drives me crazy sometimes. The song helps us remember to lean into the people around us that love us—and we all have those people in our lives.
While the pair says the song may eventually get rolled into an album project for now, it’s a single on its own. They also released a music video that focuses on the song’s meaning, Henry says.
Not only do the Imaginaries have a new single, but they also wrote and produced the motion picture soundtrack for A Cowgirl’s Song now out on Netflix, with both original music and some old standards. They also had roles in the movie, alongside Cheryl Ladd, Darci Lynne, and Savannah Lee May.
As solo artists and a due, Maggie and Shane have a track record with song placements in television, Hallmark Channel movies, and feature films.
The two met through music when Maggie, at 16, was opening for Shane, who was 20. They eventually married but kept their separate solo careers. Maggie noted that since they came from different music upbringings, it took them awhile to start collaborating. On acoustic gigs, they sometimes back up each other, singing background vocals or playing guitar. Around 2009 when Maggie started playing at college events across the country, she asked Shane to join her on guitar.
Shane said, “Even though our styles are totally different—I was blues rock, and she was more of a pop piano-driven singer-songwriter—all those years of backing each other built a chemistry for us. It helped us find a way to spent hours singing together, getting tight on harmonies.”
The pair also released a Christmas song they wrote together, “First Thing on My Christmas List,” which propelled them into the holiday music market, writing original songs and covering holiday favorites.
“As a songwriter, we had different approaches,” Maggie added. “I always wrote by myself. My songs were very personal. Shane is the first person who encouraged me to write with other people. We started to co-write with each other, but in the beginning, we did it better when we had someone else in the room too.
When they played together, fans often asked to buy an album with the two of them.
The ground was laid for the Imaginaries when the pair was living in Los Angeles, staying with a friend who had a home studio. One of his friends John Cuniberti was doing The OneMic Series. Their friend Devin Powers told them they’d be perfect for the series and sent some of their songs. When Cuniberti got back to them, he said, “I really love your music, but I have one problem: I only have one slot left. Can you do something together?”
They went to Muscle Shoals to record two songs for the series, their first visit to the iconic scene there. “We had such a great experience that we decided we needed to go back there and make our debut album,” said Maggie. They returned to Oklahoma, home for the pair, and got serious writing and collecting songs for an album project. They put together a Kickstarter campaign and returned to Muscle Shoals a few months later with a dozen songs, ten of which went on their self-titled duo album, recorded at Portside Sound in the Cypress Moon Building, once the site of Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, on the banks of the Tennessee River.
Maggie said, “Starting a new band is it seems a little bit daunting when you’ve both been solo artists for so long. Starting something brand new seemed like such a big ordeal to us in a way, and I think that’s why it took us so long to get there. We also wanted it to be natural and authentic, and finding the sound of the Imaginaries took us a little bit.”
After they completed The OneMic series and John was editing the video for release, he asked what they called themselves. Shane said, “Shane and Maggie sure sounds like a country duo bluegrass band.”
They decided that was too easy and, said Shane, “kind of boring.” They wanted a name that had its own brand, says Maggie. They also realized the challenge of coming up with a unique name, since a digital search often reveals five other bands with the same name. They worked with a dry erase board, writing down names they were considering, and then Shane declares the name came to him in a dream.
“We were playing this a big music festival and a sign behind the drum riser on the on a big banner read: ‘The Imaginaries.’ I woke up and told Maggie, ‘I know the name of the band.’”
Maggie loved it.
Fans of The Imaginaries recognize their natural chemistry in their vocal and personal harmonies. The years of backing each other has paid off. Maggie credits years of singing in church with making harmony singing second nature. Before the two got together, Shane had always been the front man and hadn’t backed anyone.
Now, says Maggie, it’s second nature for him too. “But I would say that nothing can replace the act of playing shows and building that chemistry and tightness. You can’t fabricate that,” she says.
As The Imaginaries, the pair appeared at The Basement during the AmericanaFest in Nashville and will continue to tour. With so many irons in the fire, it’s safe to bet that things really are going to be all right.
