Karen Fairchild

Little Big Town is an American country music vocal group from Homewood, Alabama.

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 moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where they reunited and began singing together.

Founded in 1998, the group has had the same four members since its founding: Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman (formerly Roads), Phillip Sweet, and Jimi Westbrook.

Their musical style relies heavily on four-part vocal harmonies, with all four members alternating as lead vocalists.

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'.

After a recording deal with the Mercury Nashville Records label which produced no singles or albums, Little Big Town released its self-titled debut on Monument Records in 2002.

It produced two minor country chart singles before the group left the label.

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, 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).

In 2005, Little Big Town was signed to Equity Music Group, a label started and partially owned by country music singer Clint Black.

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.

Their third single, "Boondocks", was released in May, peaking at No. 9 on the country charts in January 2006.

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.

Taken from Sugarland's 2007 tour, it reached number 28 on the country chart based on unsolicited airplay.

A Place to Land, their third album, was released via Equity, then re-released via Capitol Nashville after Equity closed in 2008.

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".

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".

In the fall of 2008, Little Big Town opened up for Carrie Underwood on her Carnival Ride Tour.

They began their first headlining tour in January 2009 in Jacksonville, Florida and continued through April.

Six more albums followed for Capitol: The Reason Why (2010), Tornado (2012), Pain Killer (2014), The Breaker (2017), Nightfall (2020) and Mr. Sun (2022).

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".