Boots & Hearts 2015 Preview: Little Big Town

It’s been 10 years since my first introduction to Little Big Town with the release of their second album, The Road To Here, and the four Top 20 singles (Boondocks, Bring It On Home, Good As Gone, A Little More You) that were all over country radio while I was living in Ottawa.

Since then I’ve been watching and listening as the band has released 4 more albums (A Place to Land, The Reason Why, Tornado, Pain Killer), won 2 Country Music Association Awards for Vocal Group of the Year, and a Grammy for Best Country Group/Duo Performance (2013, Pontoon). It’s been awesome, and fun to be a fan. And at the same time it’s felt like a little bit of an insider’s view. Acts like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland have spent time dominating the non-solo country landscape which often placed Little Big Town in the backseat, still putting out great music with amazing harmonies, but not garnering the attention and accolades that they may have otherwise received.

3 years ago I wrote a piece about LBT’s YouTube series, Scattered, Smothered and Covered because they were absolutely killing it with their cover versions of popular songs from the world of pop and rock and country. If you haven’t heard their version of Moves Like Jagger, Rolling In The Deep, or Born This Way… you’re missing out. But my favourite cover came long before that when the band took on Life In A Northern Town with Sugarland and Jake Owens. It still gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it. The combination of 7 voices on this one song is fantastic.

Fast forward 2 years from there and I got to see Little Big Town up on stage for the first time when they opened for Keith Urban in Toronto on the Light The Fuse tour. It was amazing. I was arguably more excited for LBT than I was Mr. Urban, and they did not disappoint for a single minute of their set. The harmonies, the energy, the hair (seriously, Kimberly Schlapman’s hair is outrageous and fantastic), everything about their performance was A+. And then just a few months later my mom caught them up on stage at The Grand Ole Opry and I was admittedly jealous. I mean, it’s the Opry, country music mecca, and I hear it was great.

That brings us to now – finally, after 3 years of wishing and 2 years of predicting, Little Big Town are coming to Boots and Hearts in 2015 at Burl’s Creek Event Park!

And while they won’t be a “headliner” in the sense that they won’t go on last (Brad Paisley, Eric Church & Florida Georgia Line will get those honours) they will be a lead in, our guess is for Paisley, and have a chance to steal the show the way Dierks Bentley did in 2013.

With a growing fanbase, a running total of 12 Top 40 singles, including 5 that went Top 10 – and Girl Crush on the way to doing the same – Little Big Town has all the material they need to put on a show that the fans won’t soon forget. The sun will be setting as they’re up on stage… but before it has a chance we’re predicting that they open their set with Day Drinking before the darkness sets in.

If you’re still not in on Little Big Town, what are you waiting for? These 4 talented musicians are…
• Putting out great music
• Entertaining as all get out
• The reigning CMA Vocal Group of the Year
• One of my favs

See y’all at Boots & Hearts – I’ll be right up front when Little Big Town takes the stage.

Work Hard. Play Harder. Be Awesome!