There’s a couple of things about Little Big Town that make the group unique in country music:
More than 20 years went by before they put out a Greatest Hits album. In country, every flash in every pan has a cash-in hits collection, sometimes two, sometime more, within a few years of debuting. Despite a rich catalog of high-charting songs and collaborations, Little Big Town never really saw the need.
The group has consisted of the same four members, Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Phillip Sweet and Jimi Westbrook, since its self-titled debut album in 2002. And THAT is a rarity, not only in country, but in all genres of popular music.
Little Big Town will be onstage Thursday (Sept. 24) at the Mahaffey Theater. It’s the very first date on a national tour in support of It’s a Dying Art, the quartet’s just-released (12th) album.
Find tickets for the 7:30 p.m. concert at this link.
One more thing about Little Big Town: It’s a harmony vocal group, and there’s robust melodicism and lyrical depth to their songs, most of which are written by the members. It’s not barstool boot-stomping, old school jingoistic country music, any more than it’s the cookie-cutter “Next-Gen” pop country so popular on the radio these days.
Yet it’s catchy, and it’s country. Albeit with shimmering vocal harmonies.
You might know the hits: “Pontoon,” “Girl Crush,” “Better Man,” “Little White Church,” “Bring it on Home,” “Tornado,” “Boondocks.”
All of which, group member Sweet says in this Catalyst interview, led up to It’s a Dying Art, produced by Gena Johnson and featuring contributions from Jason Isbell, Kelsea Ballerini and Ashley Monoe.
St. Pete Catalyst: This kind of longevity – 25 years and counting – in a country music group, with the same lineup, is pretty rare. What do you attribute that to?
Phillip Sweet: It’s so crazy to hear that sometimes, because time has just flown by. The experience together, it’s bonded us. We have fun, we laugh a lot, we respect each other. We realize that not many people get the chance to do this, and we love what we’re doing.
What’s the relationship dynamic?
It’s weird and fun and interesting, and everyone kinda plays their roles. We’ve never really lost that, from when we were driving ourselves in a van, just making gas money and to pay for a sandwich on the way. Artists should experience that – it’s raw, man. It’s what bonded us, and I think that’s where the longevity comes in. We’ve always been kinda scrappers, you know? “We’re gonna keep going,” even when it didn’t look … great. We believed in ourselves.
A lot of your music walks on a razor’s edge between pop/rock and country. The harmonies are almost like Crosby, Stills & Nash. Or Fleetwood Mac. Was that a conscious thing from the beginning?
We definitely love those bands. I love Fleetwood Mac. We’re big fans of all the harmonies; there was so much of that too. All these “yacht rock” records, all that stuff influenced all of us. For us, being a mix of so many things, so many different kind of flavors and spices … the four of us, and our voices, was that original sound we found when we sang together for the first time. There’s a special blend between the four of our voices.
None of our voices are perfect, by any means. But we didn’t tune our vocals and do that stuff. We really got real performances. You hear something in a blend with the imperfections in our voices. That’s been the fun part, too, to explore that further as we grow and evolve.
What does collaboration with other artists do for you?
I think for us it was just the natural evolution of the songs that were written. Kelsea’s voice added such a cool element to “Closing Time”; it’s sexy, smoky vocals on everyone’s part, but essentially the girls and stuff.
That and the Jason Isbell thing, that was Gena, the producer. She had worked with Jason before, on some of his earlier stuff. He doesn’t really do a whole lot that he doesn’t get into, and he really enjoyed it. His touch that’s in it, it’s so stark and haunting.
And Ashley Monroe, since she was in on the writing she was an element in there that just needed to be in “Sucker For a Sad Song.”
You work at the service of the song, as opposed to chasing a fan base …
I totally appreciate that, because we’ve collaborated with so many different artists over the years – Lionel Richie, Keith Urban, the list could go on – but we’d never really had any on our records. So, it just kind of naturally happened this way, nothing forced, all about the art. And about the song, like you’re saying. Serve the song.
The track “Hey There Sunshine” is uplifting and hopeful, in a way that’s not typical of country music. It’s about coming out of serious depression. It said to me that it’s different, it’s not about trying to score a radio hit.
I love getting played on the radio, it’s great, but everything with this record is so intentional as far as … I don’t think we wanted that clouding up the art, like “We’ve got to put this song, because this or this could happen.” We don’t really do that. And I think that is very important for us and where we’re at right now.
We had such freedom. We didn’t really want to put a boundary on what we could do. And I think that comes through.
How would you describe Karen’s role in the group? She’s ostensibly the lead singer, and she does a lot of the songwriting. She co-produced the new album.
It’s like a team, and she’s probably what would be called the quarterback. And we all play different roles; we can all step into the lead whenever we want. And you’ve heard me do a lot more leads in the live show.
This particular record, she was doing some really cool writing, she just immersed herself in that. And the production part, she didn’t ask to do that, she just basically was doing the work a lot and we were like “You should get producer credit.”
It’s just kinda been like that: Check your ego at the door and just enjoy getting to do something really cool, have fun, and the best songs will find their way to each other.
Sometimes what’s left on the cutting room floor, you’re like man, there’s five or six ‘nother bangers right there, that we can’t even put on here.
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