Drew and Ellie Holcomb will bring nearly two decades of marriage, music and hard-won creative compromise to Cleveland's waterfront next week, opening for NEEDTOBREATHE at Jacobs Pavilion with a roughly 50-minute set that folds their separate catalogs into one shared story. The Nashville-based married musicians take the stage at 2014 Sycamore St. on August 28, with the show starting at 7 p.m.
The Cleveland stop is part of a friendship that predates any tour poster. As Cleveland.com reports, Drew and Ellie Holcomb became friends with NEEDTOBREATHE after sending the band their record through a guitar technician, and the two acts share what the outlet describes as a familial connection. That bond deepened when Drew and Ellie saw NEEDTOBREATHE perform at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, and it was NEEDTOBREATHE that eventually invited the couple to join the band on the road.
Their history together also runs through the studio. Back in June 2020, NEEDTOBREATHE released the single “Survival” from the album Out of Body, featuring guest vocals from Drew and Ellie, according to CCM Magazine, which noted the track's uplifting, faith-based message landed during the early days of the pandemic.
A Marriage Built On Learning To Share The Mic
Getting to a place where they could comfortably trade choruses from their respective catalogs took time. Per the same Cleveland.com account, Drew and Ellie spent nearly two decades learning to write together, and it took 19 years for their egos to diminish enough to actually enjoy the process. Drew has said there is a lot of ground to cover between their two solo careers and their work as a pair, and the medley format — a seven- to 10-minute segment blending greatest hits, family collaboration and what the article calls a musical scavenger hunt — is his way of covering it.
The road to that stage wasn't always smooth. The report notes that Drew and Ellie once struggled to pay their bills, couldn't afford another car after theirs died, and at points considered giving up music altogether — with Drew weighing whether to apply to the Marine Corps and Ellie considering a return to teaching. Ellie also stepped away from touring in 2012 to care for the couple's first child, Emmylou, a decision that shaped her path toward a solo career, according to the same report.
Two Careers, One Shared Stage
Ellie Holcomb officially joined Drew's namesake band, Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors, in 2005, per Cleveland.com, and the group — named for the Nashville neighborhood where the original members lived — has since released 12 albums and landed song placements in more than 75 television shows, according to Red Ants Pants Music Festival. Ellie's own solo career has earned separate recognition: she was named New Artist of the Year at the 45th Annual GMA Dove Awards in October 2014 following her debut album As Sure as the Sun, and later won a Dove Award for Children's Album of the Year in 2020, per Merge PR.
Drew, meanwhile, considers himself as much a singer as a songwriter and has described Ellie as an extrovert with visible sunshine, according to Cleveland.com. In January 2025, the couple released Memory Bank, their first joint full-length studio album reflecting their 20-year creative and marital partnership — an album that became the longest-charting release at Americana radio and led to a sold-out tour, per Bluestem Amphitheater. Drew has identified “See the World” and “Memory Bank” as songs shaped directly by fatherhood.
Family On The Road, Boundaries Off Social Media
Family isn't just a lyrical theme for the couple — it's part of the tour itself. Cleveland.com reports that Ellie has brought their daughter to Cleveland on a previous tour, and the two explored the city together by electric bike. The couple's oldest daughter is now 13, and Ellie has described feeling protective of the children, with the family setting boundaries around how much of their kids' lives appear on social media. Per the same report, the Holcomb children have a say in whether family moments get posted publicly at all.
Drew has previously performed in Cleveland at the House of Blues, and the couple has described Cleveland audiences as warm and welcoming, according to Cleveland.com's report. Drew Holcomb's reach as a music curator extends well beyond his own catalog: he launched the annual Moon River Music Festival in Tennessee in 2014, an event that now draws crowds of 10,000 and announced an expansion last September into “Moon River At Sea,” a four-night cruise from Miami to the Bahamas set for November, as reported by JamBase.
NEEDTOBREATHE's New Album Drives The Tour
The Cleveland show fits into NEEDTOBREATHE's 25-date Long Surrender Tour, which runs from August 12 through September 20 and was announced in March, according to MusicRow. The trek supports the Grammy-nominated South Carolina band's 10th studio album, The Long Surrender, released March 27 and produced by Dave Cobb — marking NEEDTOBREATHE's debut release on MCA Nashville, per Wikipedia. Early singles from the record include “Momma Loves Me,” featuring The Red Clay Strays.
Advance tickets for the Jacobs Pavilion show start at $26, with doors opening at 6 p.m. ahead of the 7 p.m. set, according to TickPick, with the show co-promoted by AEG Presents. The venue itself, tucked into Cleveland's Nautica Waterfront District on the Cuyahoga River's West Bank, holds between 4,100 and 5,000 spectators and sits directly across the river from downtown — making it, as Hoodline previously reported, the city's primary mid-sized outdoor stage between local clubs and larger venues like Blossom Music Center.
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