The members of Little Big Town release their ninth studio album, Nightfall, on Friday (January 17th). Easily the band’s most nuanced project, upon inception, they didn’t realize they were on the verge of producing their ninth studio album. But with songs to capture, creative fires to stoke, Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Phillip Sweet and Jimi Westbrook went into the studio to develop what was there with no masterplan. It wasn’t long before the fiercely musical foursome realized they’d found a new creative horizon –and they just kept going until Nightfall emerged from 34 songs, myriad experiments and the inherent harmony singing that has defined the Grammy-winning group.
Nightfall includes their latest single, “Over Drinking,” the Grammy-nominated “The Daughters,” the cascading loveliness of “River of Stars,” the Mexican horn stomping revelry of “Wine, Beer, Whiskey,” the James Taylor-esque hope of “Bluebird” and the piano/gospel vocal chorus-tinged soul plea of Phillip’s raw vocal pledge on “Forever And A Night.”
They will experience a once-in-a-lifetime performance at the historic Carnegie Hall in New York City on Thursday (January 16th). This is the first mainstream country performance featured at Carnegie Hall since Alan Jackson in 2013. The Nightfall Tour will roll to the Apollo Theater for two nights January 17th and 18th.
LBT’s Kimberly says they have truly learned to trust themselves in the studio alone. “I think we learned to trust ourselves. I don’t know that we’ve really trusted ourselves as much as we have on these last two records,” says Kimberly. “I think it’s confidence, experience, because we maybe weren’t quite ourselves in the past a few times, so we learned to, let’s just follow our gut, because it’s usually right, and if it’s not, we’ll live with it. But we do trust ourselves more now. We’re braver.”
NIGHTFALL TRACK LIST:
- Next To You (Hillary Reynolds, Michael Jade, Trevor Jarvis)
- Nightfall (Karen Fairchild, Daniel Tashian, Fancy Hagood)
- Forever And A Night (Karen Fairchild, Jimi Westbrook, Phillip Sweet, Foy Vance)
- Throw Your Love Away (Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Hillary Lindsey, Liz Rose, Lori McKenna)
- Over Drinking (Carey Barlowe, Jesse Frasure, Ashley Gorley, Steph Jones, Hillary Lindsey)
- Wine, Beer, Whiskey (Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Jimi Westbrook, Phillip Sweet, Sean McConnell, Tofer Brown)
- Questions (Karen Fairchild, Jon Green, Sara Haze)
- The Daughters (Karen Fairchild, Sean McConnell, Ashley Ray)
- River Of Stars (Karen Fairchild, Daniel Tashian, Ian Fitchuk)
- Sugar Coat (Josh Kerr, Jordyn Shellhart, Lori McKenna)
- Problem Child (Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Jimi Westbrook, Phillip Sweet, Sean McConnell, Tofer Brown)
- Bluebird (Karen Fairchild, Daniel Tashian, Ian Fitchuk)
- Trouble With Forever (Jason Saenz, Marc Beeson, Sara Haze)
Audio / Kimberly Schlapman of Little Big Town says they earned a whole new level of trust in themselves when making Nightfall.
DownloadLBT (learning to trust themselves more in the studio) OC: …braver. :29
“I think we learned to trust ourselves. I don’t know that we’ve really trusted ourselves as much as we have on these last two records. That feels good. I think it’s confidence, experience, because we maybe weren’t quite ourselves in the past a few times, so we learned to, let’s just follow our gut, because it’s usually right, and if it’s not, we’ll live with it. But we do trust ourselves more now. We’re braver.”
Audio / Little Big Town’s Kimberly Schlapman and Karen Fairchild talk about producing their new album.
DownloadLBT (producing Nightfall) OC: …of Nightfall. :33
KIMBERLY: “We produced this record for the very first time. We’ve never done that before.” KAREN: “We’ve co-produced before, but never taken the reins fully. It’s quite the task (Phillip: “Yes.”). It’s very satisfying when you’re finally finished. (laughs) (JIMI: “Finally.”) Finally, yeah. But it’s 13 brand new songs. We did co-produce a couple of tracks with some friends of ours that are writers in town and incredible producers, and that came out of just wanting to finish songs that we wrote with those guys, and so we’re anxious for you guys to hear it. We’re super proud of Nightfall.”
