It s been more than 10 years since Karen Fairchild, Jimi Westbrook, Phillip Sweet, and Kimberly Roads started singing in Roads living room and they eventually kicked around the idea that Little Big Town would be a cool name for their new band.
A lot has changed for the longtime friends. Roads married Stephen Schlapman in 2006, and now goes by the name Kimberly Roads Schlapman. She gave birth to a daughter a year later. Fairchild and Westbrook were married in 2006, and in 2007, Sweet married Rebecca Arthur, and they had a daughter.
Of course, not everything has changed since the band which will be in Adrian Wednesday hit the road several years ago.
Everyone wakes up and life starts around the espresso machine, Fairchild says, chuckling through the phone from her home in Nashville.
The espresso machine is a busy place these days. Schlapman s husband and daughter, along with Sweet s wife and daughter, make road trips aboard the band s bus.
It s a family hippie bus, Fairchild says. It works out great. We all get along so well. The two little girls keep things in perspective. We sit and stare at them, mostly, wondering what they re going to do next.
Professionally, things are different. Little Big Town was one of the first acts that proved independent labels could be a force in Nashville when they signed with the Equity Music Group in 2005 after having no success at Mercury Records and Monument Records. At Equity, they had immediate success with the release of Boondocks, a song that showed off the group s powerful harmony vocals. It became a Top 10 hit and launched the platinum-selling The Road to Here, an album that also produced Bring It on Home, Good as Gone, and A Little More You.
But the Equity experience is over for LBT, as their fans refer to them. They left for Capitol Records in 2007. In an unusual move, Capitol brought along the last album the band had released at Equity, A Place to Land, and re-released it with a couple of new songs.
We re always looking for the right home for our music, Fairchild says. I don t think a band or artist is ever about the label. It s the place where we can get the music out. You have to have a team of believers and champions around you, and we feel that Capitol is that place for us to be right now.
The first single that was released through Capitol was Life in a Northern Town, a remake of the 1980s hit by Dream Academy. Little Big Town was joined on the song by Sugarland and Jake Owen, a grouping that led to a nomination for Vocal Event of the Year at next month s Academy of Country Music Awards. The song was also nominated for a Grammy this year but lost to Robert Plant and Alison Krauss Killing the Blues.
We were joking that if you have to lose, you might as well lose to Led Zeppelin and Alison Krauss, Fairchild says.
Another professional change for Little Big Town is that after years of opening for some of the biggest names in Nashville, the band is now headlining. Wednesday night in Adrian, they will be the main attraction, with the Zac Brown Band opening for them.
We decided to take the plunge and get out there on our own. We decided to do something a little more intimate, Fairchild says of some of the smaller venues they ve been playing. It s been working. We ve had several sellouts. Despite the bad economy, we want people to be able to escape. We ve enjoyed it. It s a lot longer set, so we can dive into our catalog. We ve played as long as two hours, but mostly 90 to 95 minutes.
And at Adrian, the songs will be delivered in those tight harmonies the four friends developed sitting around Roads Schlapman s home. The harmonies and sharing of vocals is something that s never changed about LBT.
We get up there and sing our butts off, Fairchild says. If you don t like harmony, I guess we re in trouble. Hopefully it will feel like you re in our living room and a whole lot like you re at a party.
Little Big Town and special guest the Zac Brown Band will perform at Adrian College Wednesday at 8 p.m. The concert is standing room only. Students receive one free ticket that must be redeemed at www.adriantickets.com. Adrian faculty can purchase tickets for $15 and the general public for $25 on the Web site.
Contact Brian Dugger at:bdugger@theblade.com.
First Published March 11, 2009, 8:11 p.m.
