On the heels of a new EP, the quirky indie-folk duo, Couldn’t Be Happiers, have premiered the official music video, “Plastic Bag Odyssey (I’ll Never Die.”) Taken from Couple(t)s Side A, the song was inspired by Jodi Hildebran Lee (drums, vocals, harmonica) spotted a plastic bag tumbling across the hot asphalt of the parking lot of a salon.“

At that moment, I had this striking realization that this plastic bag might ‘outlive’ me and everyone I knew,” she recalls. “That thought, sobering as it was, also led to this curiosity of all the things that a plastic bag would see and do in its indestructible little plastic bag life. It might see the world; it might also harm it. Sitting there with foils in my hair, I opened the notes app on my phone. The lyrics were spilling out faster than I could type. I didn’t even let my hairdresser finish blow drying my hair – I was so anxious to get back to my car so I could sing the melody into a voice memo. That night, after work, I grabbed my guitar and finished the song.” A demo of the song went on to win the Nashville Songwriters Association International’s (NSAI) Songwriting Challenge for the Piedmont-Triad Chapter.

WATCH HERE

Although Couple(t)s finds the most shade beneath a folk-rock umbrella, the album pays homage to a wide array of traditions – a New Orleans, second-line groove drives “Come Back Tomorrow;” a haunting, industrial accompaniment scaffolds “Lydia’s Bridge;” and a handful of bluegrass licks premiere in “King of Austin.” The optimism that community, tradition, and love are equipped to handle the terrifying prospects of climate change, authoritarianism, and other perils of modernity, plus the stunningly assertive lead vocals and harmonies, provide all the gravity needed to keep these diverse sounds in symphonic orbit.
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Both Side A and Side B of Couple(t)s contain six songs organized into pairs: love songs, protest songs, and folk-story songs. “We decided to organize the album into couplets shortly after we started recording it,” Jordan says. “But the decision to include only songs that could be classified as love songs, protest music, or southern folklore was made over a decade ago. We just didn’t know it.

“Writing and recording all twelve songs took well over a year. If they were not working, playing live, or writing, the couple was recording whenever they could – after work, during lunch breaks, and Sunday afternoons. The duo sees Couple(t)s as a labor of love, where their individual strengths alone might not have been sufficient to achieve the desired results.”

“The entire process was chaos,” Jordan says. “Jodi continued to push us forward. If it were up to me alone it might not be done.” Jodi adds, “Jordan insists on each song being done right. And when I was too focused on being done for the sake of meeting deadlines, he reminded me that we want this album to speak to people, and missing a deadline to do that was OK.

”Much like the poetic couplet itself, Couldn’t Be Happiers came together to achieve the same goal: a perfectly balanced album.

Couple(t)s Side A is out now, wherever you stream music. Side B will follow in summer 2025, culminating in the full Couple(t)s album.

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