Country duo in step with Texans

What they do manage to write is consistently amazing. In 2000, Austin Chronicle Readers voted Willis Best Female Singer and Best Country Singer, and for her work, Album of the Year. Nashville recording stars are always eager to peruse Robison's offerings. Lee Ann Womack recorded his "Lonely Too" on her multiplatinum record "I Hope You Dance," and Gary Allan covered "What Would Willie Do?" - a silly tribute to Mr. Nelson.

Kevin Connor, a host on Austin radio station KGSR, met Willis when she first moved to town. "She was very, very shy, but the shyness started to wear away when she would sing. That's where her confidence comes out." Of Robison, Mr. Connor notes, "He's my favorite Texas songwriter, with the only exception being Willie Nelson."

Robison's big brother, Charlie, who lives in Bandera, Texas, (and happens to be married to Dixie Chick Emily Robison) recorded "You're Not the Best," a song their grandmother hates.

Charlie, who has the bad-boy reputation in the family, says, "He's just been my best friend. We're opposite ends of the spectrum. I draw so much from him. He's calm, he goes about things pragmatically. He has a lot of the qualities I would love to have.

"Growing up in a small town, I couldn't have had anybody better to look up to even though he was the younger brother. I'll be in a slump ... and hear one of his new records and it blows me away and makes me really want to write more."

Both Willis and Robison had to clear numerous hurdles to get to where they are. Both had record-label contract troubles. (Independent label Rykodisc released her latest, last year's Easy; and Robison releases his CDs on his own label, Boar's Nest Records.) And all three of their babies were conceived by in vitro fertilization and against especially low odds.

Even their early romance was tinged with tragedy. In September 1991, their mutual friend, Chris Kern, was hit by a car and died a week later. Kern's mother, Sandy Silver, recalls Willis singing to her son in the intensive-care unit. "I heard this angel singing in his ear and I thought, 'Oh, he is loving this,' " she says.

They and Kern's other friends gathered nightly at the hospital to stand watch. On one of those nights after they left the hospital, Robison grabbed Willis and kissed her. "I think I expected her to slap me," he says. She didn't. But it took six years of off-and-on dating before they married. Silver, who helped as a nanny when the twins were born, says, "It's been a good circle of life."

Casey Monahan, director of the Texas Music Office in the governor's office says, "Bruce is one of those unnerving fellows who appears never to work but is seemingly always working.... He's also very honest. He's a quiet guy who's figured out how to make Austin work for his music career, something many talented Austin musicians haven't."

Lloyd Maines, a Texas music producer who has worked with Robinson, says, "He's one of the greatest writers I've ever heard. His melodies sound like they haven't been written before."

Willis agrees. "I'd love to do an all Bruce Robison record," she says, smiling at him across the table.

"She's my muse," he says. "I wish that I could just write songs and have her sing them and us be rich; that would be the perfect life."

• For tour dates, go to kellywillis.com.

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