Clare Bowen tried for a long time not to fall in love. But then, Brandon Robert Young walked into her life, and suddenly, she was complete.

“We met, and it felt like we literally crashed into each other,” Bowen explains to Taste of Country. “We both had been very hurt before. I basically told him, not to come over here. 'It's an absolute mess. I'm a train wreck. And I don't want to get any of it on you.’ And he was like, ‘It's okay. I'm a train wreck, too.’”

It's this foundation that holds together the relationship of the former Nashville star and her husband and now Bowen * Young bandmate.

“I totally had given up on the idea of true love happening for me,” Young tells Taste of Country. “It was just something that I don't think Clare (Bowen), or I really felt like was in the cards for us. But the more you get to know somebody, the more you fall in love with them, and you realize that there's these scary things in life."

"And when you find the one, you know that's the person you want to be holding hands with them when you are confronted with those terrifying things," he adds.

Thus, the premise of the Americana duo's new song, "Skeletons," premiering exclusively on Taste of Country on Thursday (Sept. 8).

“This song talks about those terrifying things,” Young shares. "There's no one else in the planet I would want to go through them with other than Clare."

“The neat thing about this song is that you can do it stripped back with just an acoustic guitar and two voices or a piano and two voices,” adds Bowen of the song. Its sound is a tad reminiscent of retro Little Big Town. "You can also rock it out with a band."

Written by Bowen * Young alongside songwriter Amie Miriello, the beginnings of the song came to be in a writing session, starting with the haunting line "your skeletons don't scare me."

"There is definitely something to be said for loving someone for everything they are,” Bowen admits. “It's easy to love somebody for their strengths, but to love them also for their weaknesses and all the battle scars and the things that they've been through. That is love."

"I love him more because of the things that he's been through. I know that he loves me more because of what happened to me," she continues. "And it doesn't mean that those things define us. They just make the fabric of what you are more interesting and more beautiful."

Their fabric — separately and together — is stronger than ever now.

“I personally feel much stronger walking out onto stage as a unit, arms linked, knowing that we are ready to do what we are there to do,” says Bowen, who, alongside her husband, lent vocals to the Johnny Cash album Forever Words (Extended Version). "I feel stronger than I ever did walking out as a solo artist."

She draws in a deep breath before she continues.

“I was standing behind the curtain and I was overcome with the realization that this was going to be the very first time I was going to walk out on stage and not feel lonely. I'm standing there staring into this hole of the curtains and I just burst into tears [of happiness]. I just feel like we can do anything right now, now that we get to do it together."

Top 10 Country Songs of 2022 So Far, Ranked

There are plenty of feel-good country jams on this list of the top country songs of 2022, but the No. 1 song is a gut punch. These 10 songs are ranked by critical acclaim, radio and sales success, and importance to the genre.

Five of the 10 artists made our Top Country Songs list from 2021 as well, but there are no repeats. If a song made a previous list or didn't spend most of its time on the charts in 2022, it's not eligible. So, before you ask where your favorite song is, be sure the miss isn't just a technicality.

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