LITTLE BIG TOWN’S MESSAGE IN MUSIC
New album inspired by real events and what’s going on ‘right now’
The name “Little Big Town” seemed perfect for the group Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Phillip Sweet and Jimi Westbrook formed nearly 20 years ago. At the time, the city limits of Nashville encompassed their world. With the country music industry slow to respond to their innovative harmonybased sound, all four worked day jobs to get by.
It’s a different story today. With two Grammys, seven Academy of Country Music Awards, eight Country Music Association Awards and three albums breaking the platinum sales barrier, they’ve expanded their audience beyond Tennessee. In fact, their tour schedule for 2017 includes concerts in Europe and, for the first time, Australia.
This global reach can be attributed to two factors: music and message. Through eight studio albums they’ve kept their standards high as singers. And having learned like so many of their fans that juggling family and work priorities isn’t easy, they speak truth through lyrics that people throughout the world can understand.
These qualities abound on their newest album, The Breaker, out Friday. “When you’re a parent, you become fragile — well, I did, anyway,” says Fairchild, 47. “You just can’t imagine how much you can love something and how deeply you care. I think that does show up in the bones of this record, in our ability to be fragile enough to sing songs like The Breaker or Better Man or Don’t Die Young, Don’t Get Old.”
That last song is perhaps the album’s best illustration of how life and art intersect for the group. “It was actually inspired by Jimi’s sister, who we lost last year,” Fairchild explains.
The Breaker opens with another serious track, though the title and buoyant feel of Happy People belie its message: “Happy people don’t cheat, happy people don’t lie. They don’t judge or hold a grudge; they don’t criticize.”
The confrontational temper of our times might have inspired these words, as Fairchild admits.
“We chose Happy People as the first track for that reason. It sounds lighthearted and fun but it has a deeper meaning than maybe on the first listen. It’s pretty profound about what’s going on in our world right now.” Better Man already has impacted radio, in part because of the news that it was written by Taylor Swift. Unlike Little Big Town, Swift left Nashville, and many took her departure as a farewell to the genre that had sparked her rise to superstardom. Fairchild, however, disagrees. “She’s a Nashville songwriter,” Fairchild insists. “When you write a song like Better Man top to bottom on your own with your acoustic guitar, that’s Nashville. She’s a storyteller. She loves country music. Her last record was more poppy, but who knows? Taylor can do anything she wants to. And she will forever be a Nashville girl.” As will Fairchild. This is why she and her colleagues have committed to perform the first-ever series of residency concerts at Nashville’s beloved Ryman Auditorium throughout 2017. “It’s home,” she says.
Kimberly Schlapman, Karen Fairchild, Jimi Westbrook and Phillip Sweet’s newest album, The Breaker, tackles sadness and heartbreak.