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Nashville Arts Magazine | October 2O1O | 1 38 39

Brent and Janel Maher The Long and Winding Road

by Currie Alexander Powers

They needed a driveway. A long driveway. It had to go from Janel Maher is a sculptor whose beautifully detailed horses grace the main road through a half-mile of sweeping pastures to their the homes of collectors and art lovers the world over. Her work new farmhouse. Janel Maher did not want a straight road. Her has even been used commercially; she was commissioned to artistic nature wanted something curving, winding, not going create Chariot of Fire, the life-size, winged horse for Nashville’s directly from point A to point B but allowing you to take in the Thoroughbred Motorcars. “Brent bought me my first horse for a beauty of the tall trees, the waving hundred and twenty-five bucks in Las grass, the rolling hills—make the Vegas,” Janel says. The horse, who lived journey a little bit more interesting. to be an astonishing thirty-two years old, Brent Maher trusted the instincts “really started the whole thing.” Janel’s of his wife of forty-plus years. So he early passion for horses has shaped her followed behind, sitting on his tractor lifelong pursuit of capturing their heart as she walked slowly with her arms and soul in clay and bronze. “I want outstretched, wheeling and turning to the viewer not to see cold metal, but a plot their course. subject that breathes life.” As evidence of that passion, she is currently going It’s a perfect metaphor. She could see the through a creative blitz and has nine path they should take, and he trusted sculptures on the go. This is a woman and believed in her enough to follow. who lives and breathes sculpture. That’s the stuff of a great marriage. She works with her hands. He works Brent Maher is a musician’s musician, with his ears. Creativity is the blood a producer’s producer, a songwriter’s of their lives. They weave in and out of songwriter. He engineered “Proud Mary” for Ike and Tina each other’s worlds like a single thread, yet value their individu- Turner, discovered a mother-daughter duo and nurtured them ality. They go their own way each day, Janel to her artist’s studio, into The Judds, wrote their biggest hits and produced all of Brent to his music studio, but their paths are always intersecting, their multi-Grammy-winning records, and has written enough fueled by mutual admiration and a profound understanding of hit songs to earn over thirty ASCAP and NSAI awards. He is what the other does. “He has a good eye,” Janel says. “And I have now CEO of Moraine Music Group, an independent publishing a good ear.” company whose stable includes many of Nashville’s top song- writers who have provided hit songs for the Dixie Chicks, Sara Janel is greatly inspired by music, and her source is always close Evans, Tim McGraw, Alan Jackson, and Garth Brooks. This is a at hand. Her sculpture Catch a Good Tail Wind was inspired by man who lives and breathes music. the Kevin Welch song “Early Summer Rain,” which came to her Photo: Anthony Scarlati

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through Brent’s publishing company, for whom Welch writes. Brent is confidence that I could do what I wanted to do. We’ve never lost inspired by literature, particularly the works of Ian Fleming, but he is also a respect for each other.” great observer of nature, allowing it to “inspire an emotion” for a song. For Janel can visualize a that, he only has to look to Janel; she captures nature in her hands every They also have a keen sense of when to lean in with advice for day as she coaxes the muscle and sinew of a horse from the clay. each other and often encourage each other to “let go.” “She’ll be finished piece before her hands laboring over letting go of the clay,” Brent says, “and I’ll have “ They are so well suited to each other there seems nothing random about their been looking at it for days saying, ‘It’s perfect! It’s perfect!’ And ever touch the clay, and I can union, as if the fates had it planned from the day each was born. Yet, oddly I’ll be fussing over a mix, making little adjustments, no one enough, they met on a blind date in high school. That is proof of the faith would ever be able to tell the difference, and she’ll tell me ‘It hear a finished record before a they have, not only in each other, but in the course their lives were to take. sounds great! Put it to bed.’”

single note has been played. So what is the key to a successful creative relationship? “There’s nothing I’d Given what they do, it’s not surprising that the environment rather do than talk about Janel’s art,” Brent says. “I go to art shows. I pedal they have built is a creative one, rich with inspiration, but also the metal! I talk about Janel.” Janel is equally comfortable in Brent’s world. freedom with no restraints. “I don’t feel pressure in sculpting,” ti ” “She fits right in,” Brent says. They have a tremendous amount of respect Janel says. “And when Brent goes to work, he’s not thinking he for each other. “Janel has always empowered me to try and fulfill what my has to please me.” They also give each other plenty of space. “I dream was early on,” Brent says. “Janel made me feel, ‘well of course it’s never peek over her shoulder,” Brent says. “And if she sees me what you should be doing.’” And for Janel, from Brent she has “always felt pick up a yellow notepad and wander off somewhere, she knows Photo: Anthony Sc a rl

She works with her hands. He works with his ears. Creativity is the blood of their lives.

I have an idea of how to finish up a verse and doesn’t interrupt and say, ‘Well, dinner is like—dry.’ And I can tell if she’s really locking in on something.” Further proof of the creative environment they have built, and the products of a perfect union, are their two children, Dianna, who runs Moraine Music, and Brian, a hit songwriter.

“What’s really great,” Brent says, “is that both of us not only found our soulmate, we were both given the opportunity to pursue our true being. We comment all the time about how blessed we are. Janel has always been my center point. Always.”

Janel says it more simply. After more than forty years together, “we still enjoy each other’s company.” ti ti www.janelmaher.com www.morainemusic.com

40 | October 2O1O | Nashville Arts Magazine Nashville Arts Magazine | October 2O1O | 41 Photo: Anthony Sc a rl Photo: Anthony Sc a rl