By Tom Alesia

An acoustic wonderland, the duo Admiral Radio – husband-and-wife Coty Hoover
and Becca Smith of Columbia, S.C. – is one of the newcomers likely to emerge from the
crowded, phenomenal Americana field. Covid threw the group’s first launch for a loop,
but lost time made them more formidable for their second try.

With considerable songwriting chops and heavenly harmonies, Hoover, 32, and
Smith, 30, will make their first Midwest tour swing this summer, including two sets at the
Sugar Maple Music Festival: 5 p.m. Friday, August 1 in Madison’s Lake Farm County
Park on the main stage and an encore set later that day on the intimate Roots &
Reasons stage from 8:40-9:15 p.m.
Countless gigs in the Carolinas have turned them into a must-hear unit.
Sugar Maple: You post some accolades online, but one from the Columbia,
S.C., newspaper reads, “These ears haven’t heard a duo so attuned to each since
first encountering The Civil Wars.” Wow.
Becca: “Those are big shoes to fill.”
Coty: “We are big fans of The Civil Wars. We were listening to their live album in
the car yesterday. Other people have said that: We remind them of The Civil Wars.
That’s a huge compliment.”
SM: You met working at a restaurant in 2014 while you were students at the
College of Charleston. What was the restaurant?
Coty: “A Mediterranean cantina in downtown Charleston.”
Becca: “I was a hostess and Coty was a waiter. We quickly realized that we both
played guitar. We stayed at that restaurant for a good time. Coty became a manager.”
SM: Were you solo musicians at the time?
Coty: Becca had her own music going on. For me, music was always sitting in
my room and playing guitar. I would go to her shows. Slowly, I learned her songs, so I
could play with her onstage then she showed me how to sing harmony. We didn’t put
our first song out together until February 2019.
SM: What were your influences Becca?
Becca: Early Jewel, Sheryl Crow. I learned to sing harmonies from listening to
the Beatles and taking John’s part or Paul’s part.”
SM: You finally formed as music duo in 2018.

Becca: “Yes, we were going by the name Becca & Coty. We needed to figure out
a band name.”
Coty: “We were about to put out our first single, ‘Two-Star Motel.’ We needed a
band name. We didn’t want Becca & Coty.”
Becca: “Coty called me, ‘What about Admiral Radio?’ It does create a story, and
it does get to what we do: History of folk mixed with modern times.”
Yet, Admiral Radio is definitely contemporary Americana.
Becca: “In a live set, we might throw in a public domain traditional folk tune.
Coty: “People will sing along to ‘Oh, My Darling Clementine’ or ‘You Are My
Sunshine.’”
SM: This is a tough part of your story – you had a debut album done,
decided to go full time into music and had lots of shows lineup up. Then Covid
hit. Ouch.
Coty: “Yes. We had an East Coast tour set. I finished grad school and we were
full-time musicians.”
Becca: “We were trying to fly the plane as it was being built, but we were still
excited.”
Coty: “So, we were hit pretty hard. We recorded our set at the Sumter Opera
House in South Carolina. No one was in the audience. We put it on YouTube.”
Becca: “It was still a bummer. It was anti-climactic. We were fighting the defeatist
feeling, ‘Should we just call it quits? What should we do?’ We put the album out (during
Covid) in fall 2020. Coty became a Spanish teacher, and I became a German teacher.
We made other plans to get by. We always wanted to continue. We slowly put ourselves
back out there. It’s been a crawl to where we were.”
SM: You’re there now, filling up dates on your tour and making lots of new
music.
Coty: “We’re in a great spot.”
Becca: “We’ve been so hungry to get back to it. The last year has been nose to
the grindstone.”

SM: You have four terrific new singles on Spotify and more material ready.
Does it build up to an album?
Coty: “We noticed that the name of the game now is to release your music as
singles because people don’t have a long attention span anymore. That’s how it is, I
guess. There’s an oversaturation of everything at our fingertips.”

Becca: “We’ll release an album (in September), the whole package. We might
not like the singles model, but we want to catch up.”
SM: Your most emotional single is “Love You Somehow,” the tale of an
elderly widower. Oh my, it’s powerful.
Coty: “It’s my grandparents’ story.”
Becca: “After shows, people will share their stories.”
SM: It’s a moving video, too. (See it at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg6FDCt7QTU)
Coty: “We were watching (my grandfather) live on without my grandmother for
the first time in 50 years. He’s heartbroken every day. I came up with the song in one
sitting. I was sobbing and walked into the room where Becca was.”
Becca: “I asked, ‘What’s wrong? What’s wrong?’”
Coty: “I said, ‘I’m okay. It’s this song I just finished.’”
SM: How tough is it to be married and play music full time together?
Becca: “We met working together at the restaurant. … We take a lot of
inspiration from Shovels & Rope (husband-and-wife Michael Trent and Cary Ann
Hearst) so much. We’re inspired by what they’ve achieved as a married couple.”
SM: Songwriting competitions have been extremely good for you. Honors
have come from the Tucson Folk Fest to a prominent Texas contest to an
international bluegrass society.
Coty: “A year ago, we didn’t really have many accolades that helps you be
marketable for venues. (Contest winning) makes you more intriguing. We thought, ‘Let’s
put time and effort into contests and showcases and see what comes out of it.’”
Becca: “It’s let us get the car further down the road. It’s not just my mom telling
me we’re great. It’s nice to say, ‘We’re not crazy.’ When you go down this road, you’re
like, ‘Are we cut out for this?’ It gets some wind in your sails.”