Lady Antebellum Discusses Winning CMAs, New Album - Billboard Feature, January 2010
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Lady Antebellum Discusses Winning CMAs, New Album
by Ken Tucker | January 28, 2010 1:58 EST
It's early November and snow is falling in Nashville. It's not real snow, of course-snow is a rarity in Nashville, especially in November when temperatures can still reach the 70s-and the snow is falling inside, not out. But white stuff is indeed coming down at the Sommet Center.
Lady Antebellum-the rising trio of Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood-is onstage at the Country Music Assn. Awards (CMAs) performing its current hit, the vulnerable "Need You Now," for an appreciative audience of music industry insiders and fans. While Scott and Kelley trade emotion-laden lead vocals with the faux snow as a backdrop, Haywood adds harmony from behind a grand piano.
It was a triumphant night for the soulful threesome, who won two awards: single of the year for last summer's hit "I Run to You" and vocal group of the year. The latter win was especially surprising given Rascal Flatts' dominance in the category for much of the decade. "That was a complete shock," Kelley said backstage. "Rascal Flatts, [those are] some big shoes to fill. We don't quite feel worthy."
Capitol Records Nashville president/CEO Mike Dungan says Lady Antebellum's performance in the spotlight reaffirmed his faith in the band he signed two-and-a-half years ago. "All you had to do was see their performance on the CMAs to say, 'This is what we truly call an A-level act,' " Dungan says. "They have really gelled and really pulled it together. I would stand them against anyone in country and maybe all of music."
The act's new album, also titled "Need You Now," is due Jan. 26, and a combination of touring, media appearances and good old fashioned word-of-mouth has been building buzz on the set for months.
In addition to the CMAs, Lady Antebellum has scored two No. 1 singles on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart: "I Run to You," from its debut album, peaked in July, and "Need You Now," the first single from its sophomore release, spent five weeks atop the chart in November and December. The group sold more than 1 million copies of its self-titled debut, according to Nielsen SoundScan; toured with Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban; and picked up nominations for two Grammys Awards for 2009 and two more for 2010: best country performance by a duo or group with vocals and best country song for "I Run to You."
MEET-AND-GREET
It's been a rapid ascent for Lady Antebellum, which didn't even exist four years ago. The group formed after Kelley, the younger brother of pop-turned-country artist Josh Kelley, and longtime friend and fellow Augusta, Ga., native Haywood met Scott, the daughter of Grammy winner Linda Davis, at a downtown Nashville music spot in 2006.
A chemistry emerged, and once the three started writing together, they were inseparable for months. A performance at a local club sealed the deal and Lady Antebellum was born.
Gary Borman, who manages Urban and has worked with James Taylor and the Rolling Stones, doesn't usually work with baby acts. But he signed Lady A-as the trio is known to its fans-even before it had a record deal. "We kicked some tires-we kicked a lot of tires-to find the right project," Borman says. "I'm glad we waited."
Among other qualities, including "their vitality, their commitment to songwriting and the quality of the songs they were coming with," Borman cites Lady Antebellum's "beautiful, unique sound" as one of the reasons he signed the act. "It was different than anything I'd heard."
Country KMPS Seattle music director Tony Thomas notes Kelley's and Scott's ability to trade lead vocals as a plus for the trio. "Being able to have powerful male and female lead vocals allows for some real passion to come out, like on 'Need You Now,' " Thomas says. "And the harmonies between the three group members are solid and identifiable."
Producer Paul Worley, who co-produced the new album with the group, compares Lady Antebellum to the Dixie Chicks, an act he also produced. "There's a convergence of talent and energy with the three of them," he says. "Dave is the brains, Hillary's the heart, and Charles is the drive. They are all three creative people, but they don't overlap. The combination is powerful."
Dungan calls Lady Antebellum the "most ready-to-go artists or group of artists that I had ever seen. I felt like we could just hit the ground running. They were playing together just long enough that they were truly a unit."
While the trio had two previous hits-"Love Don't Live Here" reached No. 3 on Hot Country Songs in 2007, and "Lookin' for a Good Time" peaked at No. 11 in 2008-the real connection with its audience came with the passionate "I Run to You," which hit the top in July 2009. "Our fans grasped who we were with 'I Run to You,' " Scott says. "The message and that song is so much about what we're about. It was like two puzzle pieces fitting together. Now you know us and we know you."
'NEED' FOR SPEED
Meanwhile, the rapid climb of "Need You Now" took the label by surprise. "No one expected it to move at this rate," Capitol Nashville VP of marketing Cindy Mabe says. "None of their past singles moved [this fast]."
The group did "a tremendous amount of writing" for the new record, Kelley says. "We actually had more songs compiled for this one then we did the first, just because we'd only been together a year before the first record and we had two years before this one." Members of the trio either wrote or co-wrote eight of the album's 11 tracks.
"If I had to choose one word to describe this whole entire record, even the songs we didn't write, it would be 'honest,' " Scott says.
Worley says the threesome is "dedicated to great songs whether they write them or not. They also pick outside songs that are fantastic."
Next single "American Honey" is "very nostalgic," Scott says of the tune penned by Cary Barlow, Hillary Lindsey and Shane Stevens. "It's about back when things were simple. There's some days when you're in the daily grind that you think, 'Gosh, it would be nice to go back to being a kid just for a day, just for a half a day, just for an hour.' "
The song was the Hot Shot Debut on Hot Country Songs for the week that ended Dec. 13, arriving at No. 47.
Kelley shines on the thoughtful and string-laden "Hello World," written by Tom Douglas, Tony Lane and David Lee, which has the potential to be a major cross-format hit despite its length of 5:24, which is longer than radio typically prefers.
The waltz "If I Knew Then," which deals with missed opportunities, was written by Kelley with Monty Powell and Anna Wilson.
"Our fans are mostly going to gravitate toward the heavy songs like 'Need You Now' or a 'Hello World,' " Kelley says. "Those are the songs that are going to compel them to go out and buy a record, but we always have to remember that at the end of the day our goal is to be a touring act. We love touring and we love playing those live shows and we have to have that material, too."
CENTER STAGE
On Oct. 13 the group was met with enthusiastic cheers at Urban's all-star All for the Hall concert to benefit the Country Music Hall of Fame. "We felt like Nashville was embracing us," Scott says. "We were so overwhelmed."
The act was breathing rarified air indeed, sharing the big stage with Urban, Vince Gill, Faith Hill, Taylor Swift and Brad Paisley, among others. "We were in heaven," Scott says. "Keith Urban playing guitar with us. Really? That never happens."
Sharing the big stage with Chesney and Urban changed the way the group looks at its music-which was probably evident by its dramatic CMAs appearance. Lady Antebellum wrote "Stars Tonight," which is tailor-made for live shows, with frequent Urban collaborator Powell for the new album. "It's not the most change-your-world lyric, but it's fun," Scott says.
Touring with Chesney and Urban "caused us to elevate our game really quickly," Scott says. "We got out there and realized that some of the things that we were doing at those fairs and festivals weren't going to work at [Chicago's] Soldier Field [Stadium]."
"It makes me jones for the time when we can up our production," Kelley says. "Keith Urban could entertain with a blank wall behind him, but he has [these production elements] that elevate the songs to a whole other level. I can't wait, because there are some cool creative things that we can do live with the three of us to almost have a bit of a sensory overload type of thing going on while we're connecting with the crowd."
KMPS' Thomas says Lady A is already connecting. "The group has clearly made the visual side of what they do as important as the music," he says. "The way they configure themselves onstage, song by song, adds a lot of power and drama to their live performances in a way I don't see many other acts doing."
READY FOR LAUNCH
Capitol Nashville's Mabe says retail accounts are "clamoring for this album. You get all kinds of attention from retail and digitally if you come in January, because there's so few releases."
The label is also hoping to take advantage of what it hopes are some built-in sales boosts. "As far as SoundScan weeks, Valentine's Day is always a great one, followed by Easter and Mother's Day," Mabe says. "If you can take advantage of that, it puts you in a great position with retail. It also lines you up pretty well as far as having a current single going into the Academy of Country Music Awards [in April]. The Grammys also happen to be in late January, so that's another hit for us-there's traffic in the stores."
According to SoundScan, 13% of the group's debut album sales were digital. "iTunes was a big believer from the very beginning, and they are definitely part of this plan," Mabe says.
The label will take advantage of iTunes' Countdown program. Pre-orders began Dec. 22 with one new track per week being introduced up until release date. "We wanted to impact the Christmas holiday," Mabe says. A video podcast in which the band talks about the music will accompany each track released prior to street date. iTunes also has a bonus track, the extended video version of "Need You Now," and the group will record an iTunes Session in March.
Meanwhile, Best Buy will offer a limited-edition T-shirt with the CD. The group will be part of an extensive TV campaign with Target, and Lady A will do Walmart's "Soundcheck" program, which airs in stores and online. The group will also participate in AOL's "Sessions," Yahoo's "Maximum Performance" and Clear Channel's "Stripped" live performance outlets.
While Lady Antebellum is booked for "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" Jan. 28, other TV plans are still being put in place, according to Mabe. "We will definitely be in New York when we launch and probably L.A.," she says.
Meanwhile, the group hits the road Feb. 11, opening for Tim McGraw until August, and Lady A will do fair and festival dates as well. "There also may be a few one-off shows here and there during the year to test the waters and experience the headline role," Borman says. "We've talked about headlining shows in the fall but haven't committed to any yet, as we do not want to rush into it."
Social media comes naturally to the group, whose Web site includes a feature called "Webisode Wednesday," an often hilarious and insightful look at the members behind the scenes. "These kids were doing this long before they had a record deal," Dungan says. "They were documenting everything they had done."
Kelley credits Haywood with keeping the band current. "He's just always been on the cutting edge of that stuff and he really guided the ship when it came to all those things early on in our career, putting up the MySpace and the YouTube videos."
The trio acknowledges the pressure it feels to match the success of its first record. "No one is saying, 'This has got to be great,' but you know they're [thinking], 'This has got to be great,' " Kelley says with a laugh. "But a lot of the pressure is self-induced. We have higher expectations. Our fans really gravitated toward the first one and we need to come out and hit them over the head."
"We've got to top it," Scott says.
More than anything, the group wants to keep connecting with fans old and new. "I remember when I heard Lee Ann Womack's 'I Hope You Dance,' " Kelley recalls. "I thought, 'That's so good,' and I went out that day and bought it. Or when I was 10 years old and heard Pearl Jam's 'Jeremy' and I said, 'I want people to have that feeling about us.' "
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7314linmax2:I am looking for a white T-shirt that Says Lady "A" nothing else. Seen in video of thiers on CMT.
White T-shirt
I am looking for a white T-shirt that Says Lady "A" nothing else. Seen in video of thiers on CMT.