Cloverdayle Find Emotional Shelter in Their Work: 'Country Music Is Real Life in Words and Melodies'

"We wear our hearts on our sleeves. We just always have operated that way, both on stage and off stage," Chad candidly tells PEOPLE

Cloverdayle. Photo: Chris Meyer

Three years ago, the life of country duo Cloverdayle began to collapse.

First, Chad Hamar's dad died. Then, the couple began to lose several close friends to somewhat sudden illnesses. And then, Rachel Hamar found herself undergoing a hysterectomy, a procedure which led doctors to discover that following a stage 4 endometriosis diagnosis in 2013, Rachel had also been unknowingly suffering from conditions such as adenomyosis and fibroids. She also showed signs of pre-cancer.

The couple's chances of ever having children naturally were officially over.

Cloverdayle. Chris Meyer

"We found ourselves grieving the people we had lost and then, the potential babies that we had lost, all at the same time," explains Rachel in a recent interview with PEOPLE. "It got to the point that we were just trying to exist."

And just as the couple asked themselves what could possibly happen next, they got the cruelest of answers.

"We were scheduled to do a big tour in the Northwest in 2020, and on the night of our first show is when the pandemic became a pandemic," remembers Chad, who like Rachel was born and raised in Oregon. "It was terrifying because here we were, with hundreds of people packed into this room and we had no idea what COVID-19 entailed."

Add that to the fact that their beloved Nashville was dealing with the aftermath of the crushing tornados that hit in March of 2020, and suddenly, it all became too much for the two.

"We spent several months where we did not feel creative at all," remembers Rachel, who grew up on the sounds of artists such as James Taylor and Amy Grant.

Cloverdayle. Chris Meyer

But as quarantine wore on, the healing began. And occasionally, as the sun would set on the piano that sat patiently in their living room, the couple who have always shared a love of music would sit down and begin to create yet again.

"It began to happen every night," Rachel remembers. "We would sit down, and Chad would grab his guitar and I would sit down at the piano."

"I would just let her go, because I knew she had much to say," Chad adds.

In June of 2021, the couple committed to releasing one song a month for an entire year, including songs such as "Light at the End of the Tunnel," "When It Rains, I Pour" and the stunningly reflective "Living Again."

"That was probably one of the toughest songs we've ever written just because I couldn't get through it without crying," Rachel says. "Even when I was singing the demo, we completely fell apart in the studio, which has never happened in over a decade of making music as Cloverdayle."

She pauses. "It really was the culmination of all the things, which so many of the songs on this upcoming project are."

Cloverdayle. Chris Meyer

"We're not afraid to put it all out there," adds Chad. "We wear our hearts on our sleeves. We just always have operated that way, both on stage and off stage. And I think that's why we have found a home in country music. Country music is real life in words and melodies."

But there is another side of Cloverdayle, a side that shows off the light-hearted personalities of two people who can still find the fun in the pain. Take for example their current single with the '90s country groove "Greener Where You Water It", which they say reminds them of a sequel of sorts to Sara Evans' 2004 hit single "Suds in the Bucket."

"The phrase is normally that 'the grass is greener on the other side,'" says Rachel of the song that also features the talents of CMA musician of the year Jenee Fleenor. "But really, it's not greener on the other side. It's greener wherever you put your time and energy and focus and love. And so, if you're putting all that stuff somewhere else, your grass is going to die, you know?"

So, personally and professionally, Cloverdayle marches on. The two are intent on adopting a child in "the next year or two," but admit that the pandemic set them back financially.

"The truth is that I just kept waiting to have the hysterectomy because I wanted to make sure that Chad was really in a place that he could adopt with his whole heart," Rachel explains. "And I think we are both there now."