Roome Mishra
Popular Country music band Little Big Town is marking 25 years in music. The band will release a ‘Greatest Hits’ album on August 9 and embark on a fall tour with the duo Sugarland. Meanwhile, they admit to American sweetheart Taylor Swift’s reaction to their vocals. Taylor Swift couldn’t hold in her “wow” at Little Big Town’s Vocals.
Karen Fairchild, Jimi Westbrook, Kimberly Schlapman, and Phillip Sweet—the award-winning quartet of the country music band—released the single “Better Man” in 2016 from their album “The Breaker”. The song achieved significant success both commercially and with fans.
Taylor Swift penned the Grammy winning country song
Despite their song writing talents, Little Big Town’s Grammy-winning hit “Better Man” came from an unexpected source. Taylor Swift penned the track, showcasing her ability to craft compelling narratives across genres.
The song’s success highlights the collaborative nature of the music industry, where artists often perform works by other writers. Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Phillip Sweet, and Jimi Westbrook brought Swift’s lyrics to life with their signature harmonies.
This crossover between pop and country demonstrated Swift’s versatility as a songwriter and Little Big Town’s skill in interpreting and elevating material from outside their usual creative circle.
“Amazed that Taylor would..” Here’s how the band recalls Taylor’s approach
Recalling how Taylor Swift reached out to the Country stars, Philippines Sweet admitted that he and the band were all amazed. According to him, it was a sudden email that brought the two Worlds of music together.
“We were all at home, one day off the road. We were out with Luke Bryan on tour. I got an email one night, and it was Taylor Swift, so I was like, “What is this?” I read it, and she was like, “Hey, I have this song. I’ve had it for a little while. I hear your harmonies on it. If you like it, great. If not, no big deal,’” Sweet tells PEOPLE while discussing the band’s Greatest Hits album, dropping Aug. 9.
The next day, Sweet played the song for the rest of the group, who were all “amazed that [Taylor] would send us the song. Then it turned out to be a beautiful match for us,” he says.
Fairchild knew Taylor Swift from her country music days
Little Big Town’s history with Taylor Swift dates back to her early Nashville career. Over time, their professional connection evolved into a close friendship. This longstanding relationship highlights the interconnected nature of the music community and Swift’s enduring ties to her country roots.
“We had known her for a long time,” recalls Fairchild, who says that receiving a song from Swift “seems like a slam dunk,” but after being the “only people that had heard her sing that song at the time, we needed to just make it our own.”
“It took us a little bit, and then we finally got there. We have such fond memories of bringing her to the studio to let her hear when it was done, and she turned around after she listened to it, and her mouth was open,” says Fairchild of Swift.
“She was like, ‘I love it. I love it.’ I love hearing her sing it now. We interpret it different ways, but a great song is a great song.” And that’s how a Grammy winning song was born. Well, if that’s not pure artistry, we don’t know what is.
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