of Duets

t’s an intimate space. The husky voices of Annie and Dave Ducharme-Jones intertwine, twisting around each other like a comforting embrace. Red bricks coat the walls. Warm air hugs the crowd.

The couple is on stage at xBk Live, a small live music venue located in Des Moines, Iowa. Dave is sporting a gingham gray hat and a yellow guitar. He’s playing next to his wife Annie, who’s swaying to the beat of the song as she takes the mic with her husky vocals — a bold black and gold jacket paired with a sequined top.

Their songs silence the crowd into awe. Their vocals pierce through the audience, notes and tone concise, but their movement relaxed and kind. A wave of nostalgia hits as Dave breaks out into a punchy and refined electric guitar solo. It’s reminiscent of when music was written and performed with bare instruments — combined with a band to build their American Roots Rock sound.

The energy in the room is contagious, but the lyrics sing of realities that keep the listeners grounded.

“When you have an audience who’s really listening, and they are just focused, and they may be dancing or they may just be super listening — let’s say it’s a real quiet song. The energy in the room is palpable. I mean, there’s an interplay between the audience and the musicians,” Annie says.

The Ducharme-Jones band plays on the last Monday of every month at xBk for the weekly Monday Night Live show series.

It was started by professional award-winning bassist Scot Sutherland at the Greenwood Lounge, a small dive bar in Des Moines. Dave would team up with Sutherland and drummer Russ Tomlinson to back the singer-songwriters they’d invite to perform every week.

They’d learn around twenty of the singer’s songs and organize a performance where they all team up. Most of the time there is little to no rehearsal. They’d get together on stage and improvise based on what feels right.

Sutherland invited the Ducharme-Jones to play, and since then, they’ve been a part of the series. When the pandemic hit, the Greenwood Lounge became too small of a venue for a crowd to enjoy music. Since March of 2022, xBk Live has been supporting the Ducharme-Jones and their band on stage.

However, there was a time when Dave used to perform without Annie. Music was the cupid that tied them together. Annie was a teenager raised in West Okoboji Lake, Iowa when her musician friends would come up from Des Moines to play. They introduced her to a teenage Dave who was touring the Midwest at the time.

But while Dave was already on the professional circuit, Annie didn’t quite see performing on her radar. She’d mainly write songs, strum her guitar, and sing tunes to her friends and family, but it didn’t stretch much further than that.

“I had terrible stage fright; I would just panic if you put me on stage,” Annie says.

Though she wasn’t on stage yet, Dave recalls that she was always involved in the process.

A flair for instruments since he was a kid, Dave would play with his friends in home basements or garages. That evolved into playing in high school parties and dances, and then at bars and clubs. Now, he’s an established musician who’s written and performed his own records and participated in the works of other artists.

Annie built a career as a psychotherapist, yoga instructor, and mom. All these factors would help overcome her stage fright. Her husband told her it was time for the band to shift from just Dave Ducharme-Jones; he told her “it has to be the Ducharme-Jones band.”

“I think having her involved, and involved in the writing and the co-leadership of the group really put a sort of identifiable style to our music,” Dave says. “It really put a focus on what it was we were going to be about.”

Annie has a fondness for masking dark subjects in a bright melody. She plays more with lyrical content. While Dave develops song arrangements and decorates the harmonies with unconventional guitar licks. Their connection as a married couple allows for a much smoother and seamless songwriting experience.

Much of their music is developed in their own home with sound engineering equipment that cover a small cozy space. They’re currently working on their fourth full-length album, as well as an All Access Live show for Iowa Public Radio that is due for release on New Year’s Eve. It will feature songs from the Ducharme-Jones and other local artists in Iowa.

For now though, there’s another Monday Night Live coming — through hard work and an exploration of creativity, they’re aiming to lift the series into the air. Regardless, there will likely be a moment when the husky voices of Annie and Dave link up, and it will sound like a warm hug.