You & Me Tour features new music from Drew and Ellie Holcomb

Feb. 16—The 2022 You & Me Tour: An Evening with Drew & Ellie Holcomb brings husband and wife Ellie and Drew Holcomb full circle in a way as it features the two performing new music they've recorded together for the first time in several years.

While the two are happily married with three young children, they mostly perform solo, with independent careers of their own. He with the Neighbors and she by herself. She also writes children's books and records music for kids.

The latest tour, which stops at the Walker Theatre Thursday, will feature a lot of new songs featuring the two of them from their new album "Coming Home: A Collection of Songs."

"Ellie and I have been on almost completely different paths since 2018. This tour is a unique one for us," Drew Holcomb said by telephone, "as Ellie and I go acoustic on the road with the kids and a couple of guys."

Not long after the two met at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, they married in 2006, and Ellie was even part of the Neighbors until 2012. They've done the You & Me Tour annually for several years, and during the pandemic, they did sing together on a regular basis for an online series they called Kitchen Covers. They also did a tour around the state in an Airstream last year as part of the state tourism campaign "For the Love of Tennessee, Travel Safe," but they haven't actually recorded an album of songs together in some time.

That changed with the release of "Coming Home," which is filled as the title suggests with songs about not just coming home, but leaving.

"There is a duality there for us," he said.

"It is about going on the road, especially when you get to do it with our kids, but we have spent the majority of our lives going away. Nathan [Dugger], our guitar player, wrote [the title song] thinking about all of us and all of the traveling we do. It works well as a duet."

He said while most of the songs were written before the pandemic, they work today or anytime.

"I do think they still reflect on today because on the one hand, you write about your reality, but on the other hand write about what you want it to be. What I've learned over the last couple of years is that life is hard and we don't have control over it."

In addition to new recordings, it includes a cover of Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again" and a Holcomb fan favorite.

"For 15 years, Ellie has wanted to record 'Hung the Moon,'" he said.

Holcomb points out, "This is not my record and it's not Ellie's record. It's a collection, sort of. A Drew and Ellie anthology."

Moon River Update

Chattanoogans will also know Drew Holcomb as the co-founder of the Moon River Festival. He said organizers are still finalizing the lineup for the October 2022 festival in Coolidge Park. Officials with AC Entertainment, which books and produces the event, said via an email that announcements regarding the dates and the lineup will be coming in the next several weeks.

Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354. Follow him on Twitter @BarryJC.