These recommendations by Jack Pawela, general manager at The Music Company includes Firehouse and Tourmaline Surfing Park.

I was like, I don’t know what I’m doing, but I know the kind of stuff that she likes,” he recalls. “So I thought, I’m just gonna make stuff for her.” This is how the framework for Mantras was built.

Kellie Pickler, who returned to American Idol May 4, seemingly lived that storybook-romance life with husband Kyle Jacobs—on ...