Idol Chatter & Voice Views

This folk rock/progressive country duet is made up of Leland Grant and Hailey Steele and got all four judges to spin their chairs for their rendition of Tom Petty’s “American Girl.”

Hailey grew up near Sioux Falls, S.D., and was playing guitar and yodeling by age 9, according to their MySpace bio. At age 12, she released a CD, “Born to Sing.” She toured the Midwest for several years, then moved to Nashville to pursue a career as a solo country artist.

Leland is from Suffolk, Va., where he studied piano and performed in bands before moving to Los Angeles at age 22. He landed the David Cassidy role on VH1’s “The New Patridge Family” and spent five years there pursuing a career in pop music before heading to Nashville as well.

The two met in 2008 at a Country Music Association after-party on Leland’s first night in town. Hailey says within two minutes of meeting, Leland was leading her to the bar to do a shot of Jack. They met the next day for a song-writing session, and The Line (Facebook) was formed.

“We really didn’t plan on this thing being a duo,” Leland said in a video interview. “We were just writing, and this cohesiveness happened and we became prolific. We were just knocking songs out.”

Two of those songs are embedded below. You can hear more, plus the video interview, on their YouTube channel.

On Twitter, they are THELINEMUSIC; and they have an official website.

Oh, and they are not a couple in a romantic sense, they told The Voice.

“Let It Burn”

“Bad Dream”

The Voice Audition — “American Girl”