NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- If ever there were a group with plenty of reason to pitch it in and give up, it's Little Big Town.
The quartet with the sweet harmonies, uncommon versatility and Job-like bad luck released its fourth album, "The Reason Why," this summer. Its members have been rocked by personal difficulties and unfortunate business twists and turns that always seemed to come just as the group appeared to be gaining momentum on a move to the loftier reaches of country music.
Yet as Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Jimi Westbrook and Phillip Sweet approach their 12th year together, they've never felt more positive that all their troubles are behind them and the best times are near. They've been opening for Sugarland in front of big crowds, and they hope their fourth record on their fourth label will push them to their own headliner status. The group plays with Sugarland in Raleigh on Saturday night.
"As we wrote and we recorded, that was our goal. Definitely. We pushed ourselves harder than we ever have," Schlapman said. "If there was even a slight question - 'Should this go on the record?' - no way. It was put aside. When it came time to write new songs, it had to blow everybody away or it was shipped out."
Keeping hope alive
Capitol Nashville executives think "The Reason Why" is special and could help the band join its ranks of recent million-sellers like Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" and Darius Rucker's "Learn To Live."
"I know that everybody in town wanted this band and we were over the top when we got them because we felt like we had just won the lottery," said Cindy Mabe, Capitol Nashville's senior vice president of marketing.
"The Reason Why" shows off Little Big Town's best asset - its versatility. Each member contributed songs and took turns on lead vocals, and the album ebbs and flows as each bandmate's personality moves to the forefront.
Little Big Town moves with ease from opener "The Reason Why," built on the band's signature four-part harmony, to Westbrook's rock 'n' roll-flavored "Runaway Train" to the sassy single "Little White Chapel." The song, which sprouted from an inspirational moment in the shower for Fairchild and has become a top 15 hit on Billboard's country music chart, is an unintentional response to Beyonce's "All The Single Ladies."
"It's the redneck version," Westbrook joked.
Working as a team
It took a team effort to write those songs, and that team concept is what has carried the band through all those stressful times. Each member has an equal say and plays specific roles. Fairchild, for instance, loves the business end of their life together. Sweet is the guy they turn to when it's time to arrange the music.
"We're out for each other's interests, and we're also really keenly aware of what each of us wants," said Fairchild, who recently had her first child with husband Westbrook. "I could probably define for you what each of them wants in the music or what they're looking for in a song. And they could about me, so there's that kind of collective intuition about music and business decisions. And then we live and die about it. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work, and we go, well we did it."
Little Big Town hopes to return to the status it attained in 2005 with the million-selling "The Road To Here," which produced two top 10 hits. Everything they did on the new album was geared toward that next level, and Mabe said Capitol believes the band is headed that way.
Living in the moment
Whatever happens, the members of Little Big Town expect it to be fun. They've drawn a line between the problems of the past and the promise of the future, and they're not looking back.
"We're just enjoying this moment," Fairchild said. "We hope that great things come from this record, and we're so happy to be a part of country music. We do enjoy the music the same way we did 11 years ago in a van in front of 50 people at a little club where no one knew us.
"There's still that same joy in hearing the harmonies back on something you wrote, only it's a lot more fun to sing in front of 14,000 people."
