Little Big Town

From Toasted Rav

Little Big Town is an American country music vocal group. Founded in 1998, the group has comprised the same four members since its inception: Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Roads Schlapman, Jimi Westbrook, and Phillip Sweet. The quartet's musical style relies heavily on four-part vocal harmonies, with all four members alternating as lead singers. Westbrook and Sweet also play rhythm guitar.

After a short-lived deal with the Mercury Nashville Records label which produced no singles or albums, Little Big Town released their self-titled debut on Monument Records in 2002. It produced two minor country chart singles before the group left the label. By 2005, the group had been signed to Equity Music Group, an independent record label owned by Clint Black. Their second album, The Road to Here, was released that year. Certified platinum in the U.S., it produced consecutive Top Ten singles on the country charts in "Boondocks" and "Bring It On Home". A Place to Land is the title of their third album, released in 2007. This album's first single, "I'm with the Band", was a Top 40 hit on the country charts. Shortly after its release, the group was transferred to Capitol Records Nashville, which acquired the rights to A Place to Land and released "Fine Line" as its second single.

Little Big Town have charted ten singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. This figure includes a Christmas single which was made available only as a download, and a live cover of "Life in a Northern Town" (along with Sugarland and Jake Owen) which charted in 2008 based on unsolicited airplay.

Early years

In 1987, while attending Samford University in the state of Alabama, singers Kimberly Roads and Karen Fairchild met. Eventually, the two moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where they reunited and began singing together.[1] Jimi Westbrook, a friend of Fairchild's husband, joined Roads and Fairchild in 1998.[2] The three singers began performing as a trio, eventually rehearsing with Gary LeVox and Joe Don Rooney, both of whom would eventually become members of the country pop group Rascal Flatts.[1] By 1999, Phillip Sweet was added as the fourth member of the group, which by then had chosen the name Little Big Town.

Little Big Town

Little Big Town's first record deal was with Mercury Nashville Records; however, no singles or albums were released on that label, due to creative disputes.[2][1] By 2002, Little Big Town was signed to Monument Records. Their first album, also named Little Big Town, was released that year. It produced the singles "Don't Waste My Time" and "Everything Changes", which respectively peaked at #33 and #42 on the Billboard country charts.

Westbrook's father passed away in 2002, just after the group's first album was released. Fairchild and Sweet both divorced shortly afterward, and the group was dropped from Monument's roster. The four members all took up day jobs to earn additional money, although they continued to tour as well.[1]

The Road to Here

In 2005, Little Big Town was signed to Equity Music Group, a label started and partially owned by country music singer Clint Black.[1] Their third single was released on Equity in May of that year; entitled "Boondocks", the song reached a peak of #9. "Boondocks" served as the first of four singles the group's second album, The Road to Here, which was released in the United States on October 4, 2005.

"Bring It On Home", the second single from The Road to Here, became Little Big Town's first Top 5 hit on the country charts in 2006. It was followed by "Good as Gone" and "A Little More You", both of which entered Top 20. By the end of 2006, The Road to Here had been certified platinum for shipping one million copies in the United States.

A Place to Land

A Place to Land was the title of Little Big Town's third studio album, released in the United States on November 6, 2007. Its lead-off single, "I'm with the Band", peaked at #32 on the country charts. On April 23, 2008, Little Big Town announced it was leaving Equity for Capitol Nashville.[3] Shortly afterward, they charted along with Sugarland and Jake Owen on a live cover of The Dream Academy's "Life in a Northern Town". This live recording, taken from Sugarland's 2007 tour, reached #28 on the country charts based on unsolicited airplay. Later in 2008, Capitol issued "Fine Line" as the second single from A Place to Land, which was re-released in October 2008 with bonus tracks, including "Life in a Northern Town".

Personal lives

Karen Fairchild and Jimi Westbrook secretly married on May 31, 2006, although their marriage was not revealed until two months later.[4]

Kimberly Roads was married to Stephen Schlapman on November 28, 2006;[5] she gave birth to a baby girl, Daisy Pearl Schlapman, on July 27, 2007. [6] She now goes by her husband's last name, Schlapman[1] Schlapman was previously married to Steven Roads, who died from a heart attack in 2005. He was also the band's lawyer.[2]

Phillip Sweet married Rebbeca Arthur, a business owner and wardrobe stylist, on 30 March 2007. Arthur gave birth to daughter Penelopi Jane on December 27, 2007 at 5:47 p.m. at the Baptist Hospital in Nashville.[7]