Country’s Little Big Town finds success with mixed-genre sound

Their goal: to keep people from getting up and going to buy beer for 45 minutes.

This was five or six years ago, when coed country quartet Little Big Town was just getting their first taste of success via their second album, "The Road to Here," which would end up selling more than a million copies.

The group already was becoming popular in country music circles with hits such as "Boondocks" and "Bring it on Home," buoyant rays of backwoods sunshine powered by the group's chocolate-rich four-part harmonies, but then they hit the road opening for John Cougar Mellencamp, whose audience was generally unfamiliar with the band.

Hence, the initial aim was just to delay trips to the concession stand.

"Every night we would have to earn our keep," Little Big Town singer Karen Fairchild chuckles. "Now, we have a lot of Mellencamp fans in our fan club."

This seems like a given: Little Big Town is one of Nashville's leading gateway acts these days.

As far as country music goes, they stand with one foot within the genre and one outside of it.

The heart-on-the-sleeve storytelling, the fiddle flourishes, the tours with the likes of Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert and the numerous Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music awards all place them well within the Music City establishment.

But the lush harmonies, which garner the band endless Fleetwood Mac comparisons, the fiery guitar embellishments and the crisp, fat-free production values make Little Big Town just as suited for the rock and pop airwaves.

Basically, they're a country act that you don't have to be a fan of country music to dig.

"That's always a super high compliment when we hear someone say, 'Well, I wasn't really a country music fan, but you guys brought me in and now I'm discovering other country artists,' " Fairchild says. "If you don't like super traditional music, there's bands like us that have influences of country and Southern and bluegrass harmonies, but yet we also have some pop sensibility about us. We're super-influenced by the Southern California harmony bands. Maybe that's part of the appeal. Hopefully it sounds new, but a little bit familiar."

Little Big Town's latest disc, "The Reason Why," sees the band ranging from bluesy kiss-offs ("Why, Oh Why") to rootsy rock firecrackers ("Runaway Train") to plucky, multiformat hits ("Little White Church").

The album debuted atop the country album chart last September, which marked the snow-capped peak of a long climb for this bunch.

Little Big Town's self-titled 2002 debut, which was written in large part by outside songwriters, failed to find an audience and got the band dropped from their label.

With no record company, and all four of the band members having just gotten out of long-term relationships (including singer Kimberly Schlapman, whose husband passed away), the group retired to the woods where producer Wayne Kirkpatrick's studio was located and started penning songs themselves.

"There were a lot of tears, there was a lot of soul searching, and that's when I think we kind of found our way as writers," Fairchild says. "We decided, 'OK, we're going to write a collection of songs and we're going to put 'em out. If we have a label, we'll have a label. If not, we'll put them out on our own and see what happens.' When you get into that frame of mind, like, 'I'm going to write about my life and about stories that have happened to me or people nearby me,' then it becomes real."

Still, the album that would eventually ensue, aforementioned future hit "The Road to Here," was initially rejected by several record companies before eventually netting the group a new deal.

There was plenty of skepticism regarding the band's distinct sound, which isn't posited on any one voice.

"When we came on the scene, there was no mixed girl-guy band and there wasn't people who were flipping lead singers," Fairchild says. "We got some resistance in the beginning, 'Hey, you guys should pick a lead singer.' People weren't sure that it worked. It sounded different."

It still does, even though guy-girl groups such as Lady Antebellum and Sugarland have hit it big since Little Big Town debuted.

Those bands have traveled down a road that this group paved, covering up the many potholes that they encountered along the way.

"We were damaged goods in the beginning, not really making the right record the first time and then finding our way," says Fairchild, reminiscing on her band's success. "It's one of those great Cinderella stories."

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.