When you get a little taste of fame -- or simply when the times and trends change -- it’s easy to forget a lot of grounding truths and realities in life.

For Maddie & Tae, there is one truth they won’t ever forget: Country music is great.

“People forget how great country music is, and we haven’t,” the duo’s Maddie Marlow recently shared.

Marlow and her bandmate Tae Dye are gearing up to celebrate the release of their debut album, Start Here, next week. As a part of the big moment, the two have shared the album on National Public Radio’s First Listen series, a move that exposes their music to a wider mainstream audience.

NPR’s Ann Powers notes the duo’s lyrical prowess and producer Dann Huff’s work in the studio. The man behind recordings for artists like Faith Hill, Keith Urban and Hunter Hayes certainly not only understood Maddie & Tae’s message, he also knew what to do with it.

Part of that is to emphasize traditional country music instrumentation.

“It’s nice knowing we’re putting the banjo, the fiddle, the steel and the mandolin back out front,” Marlow says of the project.

“[Country music] is what we love,” she adds. “Dann Huff understood that and helped us put those things front and center. We wouldn’t have had it any other way, but we’re so glad he really got it.”

And so are we. Lord knows, I have missed hearing some solid steel guitar.

Start Here hits stores Aug. 28.