Little Big Town

Little Big Town is an American country music vocal group from Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1998, the group has had the same four members since its founding: Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman (formerly Kimberly Roads), Phillip Sweet, and Jimi Westbrook. Fairchild and Westbrook have been married to each other since 2006. Little Big Town's musical style relies heavily on four-part vocal harmonies, with all four members alternating as lead vocalists.

After a recording deal with the Mercury Nashville Records label which produced no singles or albums, Little Big Town released its debut album Little Big Town on Monument Records in 2002. It produced two minor country chart singles before the group left the label. In 2005, the group signed to Equity Music Group, an independent record label owned by Clint Black. Their second album, The Road to Here, was released that year, and received a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and spawned their breakout single, "Boondocks." A Place to Land, their third album, was released via Equity, then re-released via Capitol Nashville after Equity closed in 2008. Seven more albums followed for Capitol: The Reason Why (2010), Tornado (2012), Pain Killer (2014), The Breaker (2017), Nightfall (2020), Mr. Sun (2022) and The Christmas Record (2024), four of which have reached number one on the Top Country Albums chart.

Their albums accounted for 24 singles on Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay, including the No. 1 singles "Pontoon", and "Better Man" along with the top 10 hits "Boondocks", "Bring It On Home", "Little White Church", "Tornado", "Day Drinking", and "Girl Crush".

Fairchild and Schlapman met at Samford University in 1987, where they both sang in the school's vocal ensembles. In the mid-1990s, Fairchild sang with the Christian vocal group Truth and was featured as a lead singer in a few of their songs. She formed a duo called KarenLeigh with Leigh Cappillino, a member of Truth who joined the group Point of Grace. KarenLeigh produced the singles, "Save It for a Rainy Day" and "This Love Has". Fairchild and Schlapman both later moved to Nashville, Tennessee to pursue solo singing careers, where they reunited and decided to form a vocal group. Westbrook joined Schlapman and Fairchild in 1998, followed by Sweet.

Little Big Town's first record deal was with Mercury Nashville Records. The band was dropped from the label's roster without releasing a single or album. In 2001, they sang backing vocals on Collin Raye's album Can't Back Down, while Sweet and Roads co-wrote the song "Back Where I Belong" on Sherrié Austin's 2001 album Followin' a Feelin'.

In 2002, the band signed with Monument Records Nashville. The band released its first album, Little Big Town, in 2002. The album produced the singles "Don't Waste My Time" and "Everything Changes", which peaked at 33 and 42, respectively, on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Little Big Town was left without a label when Monument Records dissolved its Nashville branch. After Westbrook's father died, and Fairchild and Sweet got divorces, the band members got outside jobs while they continued to tour.

In 2005, Little Big Town was signed to Equity Music Group, a label started and partially owned by country music singer Clint Black. Their third single, "Boondocks", was released in June, peaking at No. 9 on the country charts in January 2006. It served as the first of four singles from the group's second album, The Road to Here, which was released on October 4, 2005. "Bring It On Home", the second single from the album, became Little Big Town's first top 5 hit on Hot Country Songs. It was followed by "Good as Gone" and "A Little More You", both of which were top 20 hits. By the end of 2006, The Road to Here had been certified Platinum in the United States. Unlike their first album, the group's members co-wrote the majority of the songs on The Road to Here along with Wayne Kirkpatrick, who also produced it. In 2007, the group sang backing vocals on John Mellencamp's Freedom's Road album.

Little Big Town released A Place to Land, their third studio album and second with Equity, on November 6, 2007. Its lead-off single, "I'm with the Band", peaked at number 32 on the country chart. On April 23, 2008, Little Big Town announced it was leaving Equity for Capitol Nashville. Shortly afterward, they charted with Sugarland and Jake Owen on a live cover of The Dream Academy's "Life in a Northern Town". Taken from Sugarland's 2007 tour, it reached number 28 on the country chart based on unsolicited airplay. In October 2008, Capitol re-released A Place to Land, which added four new songs, and the label promoted two further singles from the album, "Fine Line" and "Good Lord Willing".