Working country songwriters MacKenzie Porter and Jake Etheridge, married for several years, took time to realize they were living with their best collaborators. In 2025, the duo struck a chord with the aching "Happy Ever After You," which they released under the alias Thelma & James; by the year's end, they'd fashioned a whole debut, Starting Over, rich in melody, harmony and Americana arrangements.
Porter, born in 1990 in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, had quite the career before coming to Nashville, working as an actress before self-releasing her debut country album in 2014...