Chasing their dreams

Oct. 9—DAVIDSON COUNTY — Derek and Katelyn Drye may have dreamed about Dollywood, but probably not Hollywood.

Yet here they are, a couple of small-town dreamers who grew up in Davidson County, fell in love, got married, shared their musical dreams and began sharing the stage, made their way to Nashville and, yes, even performed at Dollywood.

And now they surprisingly find themselves in Hollywood, competing — and quickly winning over a new legion of fans — on "The Voice," the uber-popular NBC talent competition that helps elevate musical artists' careers to the next level.

"It felt so surreal being in that room and on that stage that I've seen on TV for so long," Katelyn said during a telephone interview. "We love that show — my parents are really big fans — so it just felt surreal to be there."

The couple, who perform and record as a husband-and-wife country duo called The Dryes, debuted on "The Voice" on Sept. 26, during the "blind auditions" phase of the competition.

During the blind auditions, artists perform for a panel of four musical celebrity coaches whose chairs are turned away from the artists, so they're judging the artists solely on their voices rather than their looks. If a celebrity coach is impressed by a voice and wants to mentor that artist, he or she presses a button that turns the chair around to face the artist.

For their blind audition, The Dryes performed a beautifully harmonized version of the Kenny Rogers-Dolly Parton duet, "Islands in the Stream." Two of the four coaches — country singer Blake Shelton and, ironically, his wife, pop singer Gwen Stefani — turned their chairs around to express interest in The Dryes. After some discussion with the two singers, the couple chose Shelton to be their coach for the series.

"It actually was kind of hard, because Gwen had so many amazing things to say about us," Katelyn said. "But we both went into it thinking Blake Shelton, because it just made sense for us and our genre. He's a legend — he's Blake Shelton. We went with our gut and picked Blake."

The last episode of blind auditions will air Monday evening, and the next phase of the competition — known as the battle rounds — will begin Tuesday evening. Air time is 8 p.m. both nights.

The winning artist will receive a $100,000 prize and a recording contract with Universal Music Group.

Competing on "The Voice" is just the latest accomplishment for a couple whose musical journey seemed destined from an early age for both of them. The only difference was that she was a little bit country — well, OK, a lot country — and he was a little bit rock 'n' roll.

Derek, a 2004 graduate of Ledford High School, began playing the guitar as a young teenager. When he was 14, his grandparents — Tim and Yvonne Drye, of Thomasville — bought him a guitar at Smith & Whitley Music in High Point, and signed him up for weekly lessons.

"He picked it up quickly, and Derek's guitar teacher was very complimentary of him," Yvonne Drye said. "He said, 'He must practice all week.' And I said, 'Would you believe he only practices 30 minutes before his lesson?' "

Derek actually was practicing during the week, too, but he was more inclined to play the tunes of legendary bluesman Stevie Ray Vaughan than, say, "You Are My Sunshine." He later gravitated toward the music of Pearl Jam and other rockers. In high school, he joined a local rock band.

"Our first gig was at Triangle Billiards there in High Point," Derek remembered.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Davidson County, Katelyn was forging her own path as a performer.

"Oh yeah, I would put on shows for my family from the time I could talk," she said laughingly.

As she grew a bit older, she began listening to the likes of country artists such as Shania Twain, LeAnn Rimes and the Dixie Chicks.

"I told all my friends that's what I wanted to do," said Katelyn, a 2007 graduate of North Davidson High School. "I said, 'I'm gonna do what they do — make albums and tour the world.' And now I'm doing that. It's been a really cool thing to experience."

But for her and her husband, they didn't really start making musical inroads until they went from being Derek and Katelyn to being The Dryes.

The couple met on a blind date in 2008, eating Mexican food and then sitting in the car and talking for three or four hours afterward. By the end of the evening, they both knew they had met their soulmate. They continued dating and got married in 2011.

Musically, they began singing together about three months after they began dating. They made their own press kits and distributed them to bars and, eventually, larger venues. They began receiving invitations to open shows for bigger artists.

"It just grew and grew until we moved to Nashville in 2014," Katelyn said.

Eventually, The Dryes began to gain a loyal following and enjoyed success with several of their songs. In 2018, they recorded a powerful ballad, "War," which has amassed more than six million streams on Spotify alone. In addition, the videos for two other songs, "Dolly Would" and "House On Fire," peaked at No. 1 on CMT Music's weekly "12 Pack Countdown."

Their music has also won acclaim from such publications as People, Rolling Stone and American Songwriter.

And now, as a new season of "The Voice" gets under way, The Dryes find themselves on a new, much larger stage, and they couldn't be more excited about it.

"This just seems like another amazing opportunity to tell our story on a platform that we haven't before," Katelyn said. "It's been really cool. We've gotten a lot of new fans since we were on the show. People have even reached out to us about our original music, which has been a real blessing for us, and we're just so thankful."

jtomlin@hpenews.com — 336-888-3579

jtomlin@hpenews.com — 336-888-3579