Nashville Arts Magazine | October 2O1O | 1 - Janel Maher

Nashville Arts Magazine | October 2O1O
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Brent and Janel Maher
The Long and Winding Road
by Currie Alexander Powers
It had to go from
the main road through a half-mile of sweeping pastures to their
new farmhouse. Janel Maher did not want a straight road. Her
artistic nature wanted something curving, winding, not going
directly from point A to point B but allowing you to take in the
beauty of the tall trees, the waving
grass, the rolling hills—make the
journey a little bit more interesting.
Brent Maher trusted the instincts
of his wife of forty-plus years. So he
followed behind, sitting on his tractor
as she walked slowly with her arms
outstretched, wheeling and turning to
plot their course.
They needed a driveway. A long driveway.
It’s a perfect metaphor. She could see the
path they should take, and he trusted
and believed in her enough to follow.
That’s the stuff of a great marriage.
Brent Maher is a musician’s musician,
a producer’s producer, a songwriter’s
songwriter. He engineered “Proud Mary” for Ike and Tina
Turner, discovered a mother-daughter duo and nurtured them
into The Judds, wrote their biggest hits and produced all of
their multi-Grammy-winning records, and has written enough
hit songs to earn over thirty ASCAP and NSAI awards. He is
now CEO of Moraine Music Group, an independent publishing
company whose stable includes many of Nashville’s top songwriters who have provided hit songs for the Dixie Chicks, Sara
Evans, Tim McGraw, Alan Jackson, and Garth Brooks. This is a
man who lives and breathes music.
Janel Maher is a sculptor whose beautifully detailed horses grace
the homes of collectors and art lovers the world over. Her work
has even been used commercially; she was commissioned to
create Chariot of Fire, the life-size, winged horse for Nashville’s
Thoroughbred Motorcars. “Brent bought me my first horse for a
hundred and twenty-five bucks in Las
Vegas,” Janel says. The horse, who lived
to be an astonishing thirty-two years old,
“really started the whole thing.” Janel’s
early passion for horses has shaped her
lifelong pursuit of capturing their heart
and soul in clay and bronze. “I want
the viewer not to see cold metal, but a
subject that breathes life.” As evidence
of that passion, she is currently going
through a creative blitz and has nine
sculptures on the go. This is a woman
who lives and breathes sculpture.
She works with her hands. He works
with his ears. Creativity is the blood
of their lives. They weave in and out of
each other’s worlds like a single thread, yet value their individuality. They go their own way each day, Janel to her artist’s studio,
Brent to his music studio, but their paths are always intersecting,
fueled by mutual admiration and a profound understanding of
what the other does. “He has a good eye,” Janel says. “And I have
a good ear.”
Janel is greatly inspired by music, and her source is always close
at hand. Her sculpture Catch a Good Tail Wind was inspired by
the Kevin Welch song “Early Summer Rain,” which came to her
Photo: Anthony Scarlati
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”
confidence that I could do what I wanted to do. We’ve never lost
respect for each other.”
They are so well suited to each other there seems nothing random about their
union, as if the fates had it planned from the day each was born. Yet, oddly
enough, they met on a blind date in high school. That is proof of the faith
they have, not only in each other, but in the course their lives were to take.
They also have a keen sense of when to lean in with advice for
each other and often encourage each other to “let go.” “She’ll be
laboring over letting go of the clay,” Brent says, “and I’ll have
been looking at it for days saying, ‘It’s perfect! It’s perfect!’ And
I’ll be fussing over a mix, making little adjustments, no one
would ever be able to tell the difference, and she’ll tell me ‘It
sounds great! Put it to bed.’”
So what is the key to a successful creative relationship? “There’s nothing I’d
rather do than talk about Janel’s art,” Brent says. “I go to art shows. I pedal
the metal! I talk about Janel.” Janel is equally comfortable in Brent’s world.
“She fits right in,” Brent says. They have a tremendous amount of respect
for each other. “Janel has always empowered me to try and fulfill what my
dream was early on,” Brent says. “Janel made me feel, ‘well of course it’s
what you should be doing.’” And for Janel, from Brent she has “always felt
Given what they do, it’s not surprising that the environment
they have built is a creative one, rich with inspiration, but also
freedom with no restraints. “I don’t feel pressure in sculpting,”
Janel says. “And when Brent goes to work, he’s not thinking he
has to please me.” They also give each other plenty of space. “I
never peek over her shoulder,” Brent says. “And if she sees me
pick up a yellow notepad and wander off somewhere, she knows
Photo: Anthony Scarlati
“
Janel can visualize a
finished piece before her hands
ever touch the clay, and I can
hear a finished record before a
single note has been played.
through Brent’s publishing company, for whom Welch writes. Brent is
inspired by literature, particularly the works of Ian Fleming, but he is also a
great observer of nature, allowing it to “inspire an emotion” for a song. For
that, he only has to look to Janel; she captures nature in her hands every
day as she coaxes the muscle and sinew of a horse from the clay.
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.”
Photo: Anthony Scarlati
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Photo: Anthony Scarlati
Janel says it more simply. After more
than forty years together, “we still enjoy
each other’s company.”
www.janelmaher.com
www.morainemusic.com
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