Little Big Town Shines A Ray Of Hope, Wisdom & Joy On New Project, ‘Mr. Sun’ [Interview]

When it comes to powerhouse bands in country music, Little Big Town has been one of the leading forces in the category for the last 20 years.

Since breaking onto the scene with massive hits such as “Boondocks,” “Pontoon,” “Day Drinking,” “Better Man,” the history-making “Girl Crush,” and the Grammy-nominated “When Someone Stops Loving You” and “Little White Church,” the dynamic foursome—composed of Karen Fairchild, Phillip Sweet, Kimberly Schlapman and Jimi Westbrook—have blazed the trail for group success in the country format. Together they’ve tallied over 45 award nominations and more than 20 wins, including multiple Grammys, ACM and CMA Awards, AMAs, People’s Choice Awards and even an Emmy.

The decorated group is ushering in a new era with the release of Mr. Sun, aiming to shine a light of hope after the last few years of universal hardship. Born out of the darkness of the pandemic, Mr. Sun found the bandmates apart for the first time throughout their two-decade long friendship.

Following the release of Nightfall, their acclaimed, No. 1 studio album, in January of 2020, the four embarked on their “Nightfall Tour.” Only making it roughly halfway through the 34-date trek, the tour was abruptly put to a stop in March of 2020 due to the rapid onset of COVID-19.

“We played the Atlanta Fox Theatre, which was [our last show],” Sweet recalls with MusicRow. “We were on the way to the bus to go to the Detroit Fox Theater and we got the call to go back home because the show was over.”

What they at first thought was going to be a couple weeks of gearing down turned into over 450 days without playing a show and over five months apart from each other. Shortly after getting back together to virtually play a private event, the four friends decided to get back in the studio and start making some music.

“We’ve never taken that much time off or been apart that long,” Westbrook explains. “Getting back together in the studio was still odd because everybody was masked up, so it was really strange in the beginning. At the same time, though, there was comfort in it because it was a familiar place for us. It was confirming that there was still normalcy even in that weird time.” He continues, “The pandemic definitely influenced the creative process [for this album]. Thematically and song-wise there were a lot of things that spoke to coming out of that time.”

As they did with the Nightfall record, Little Big Town once again took their turn behind the soundboard for their tenth studio album, self producing it from top to bottom. Throughout the 16-track project, a collection the size of which they’ve never released before, the band weaves listeners through an array of different emotions, all set behind an infectious ’70s-style sonic landscape.

With a level of maturity that takes living some life to understand, Mr. Sun looks ahead to better days, bringing much-welcomed levity to the record, while also diving into some of the emotions leftover from the last two years of lockdown. From the feel good “Gold,” the poolside vibe of “All Summer,” the sassy “Better Love” and the jig-inducing “Heaven Had A Dance Floor,” to deeper cuts like “Different Without You,” the surprisingly woeful title track, a chilling final goodbye in “One More Song” and the sobering “Three Whiskeys and the Truth,” the record marks yet another chapter in Little Big Town’s artistry.

“I feel very romantic about the Nightfall record, and we didn’t get to fully live it out. It was the biggest tour we’d ever done and then it just shut down,” Fairchild reminisces. “But I know so many people feel the same way about everything that was going on in their lives. Our whole world just shut down.” She continues, “Part of the creative process is passing the baton to the next chapter. Mr. Sun feels a little more like you’ve lived through something that impacted you… [This album] has those moments of deep diving but then it’s balanced. It’s like a balanced meal—a little salt, a little spice, a little sugar, and a little acid.”

To bring all those critical components together, the band tapped quite a swath of writers on this project—33, to be exact, hailing from three countries and 20 different states.

With at least one band member credited on 13 of the album’s 16 songs, Mr. Sun also sees appearances from some of Nashville’s seasoned writers, including Corey Crowder, Hillary Lindsey, Tyler Hubbard, Jesse Frasure, Lori McKenna, Shane McAnally, Liz Rose, Josh Osborne, Nicolette Hayford, Jordan Schmidt and Sara Buxton, among many others. With so many creative palettes and perspectives at work, this release undoubtably marks the band’s most unique and universal project to date, while also showcasing a glowing cross-section of the Music City community.

“That’s the beauty of this town,” Fairchild puts simply. “33 writers sounds like a crazy amount, but when you look at 16 songs, it’s like you’re painting with colors. All those writers are all the little brushstrokes that make a record come together.”

“We wrote with a lot of people that we had written with many times and also new people. I think that’s always a beautiful new experience that you’re walking into… It really opens up new doors for collaboration that hopefully go in a direction that you’ve not gone in before,” Westbrook notes. “That’s a beautiful part of the process, and I love that part of just trying to stretch yourself creatively.”

“It’s all about bringing together a community, in a way. There’s this wonderful community of writers and I feel like that’s shown here,” Sweet adds.

Within Mr. Sun‘s many tracks are some songs that were passed down from the Nightfall era, including the nostalgic, swaying “Whiskey Colored Eyes,” and other songs that have long been with the band like Westbrook’s solo-penned “Rich Man,” which he’d been holding on to for over ten years.

Though not intended for Mr. Sun, and one of the last songs to make the cut, “Rich Man” reflects what real wealth means to the band while conveying Westbook’s love for family and their role in anchoring him.

“If there’s one thing that happened for a lot of people coming out of COVID, it was the stripping away of the things that really didn’t matter. We were all jarred into remembering what you can hold onto, no matter what you’re going through in life, who you are, what your status may be, or anything else,” Westbrook explains. “I’m just proud that [‘Rich Man’] is a part of this record and hopefully may represent that for some people.”

“Songs sometimes have their own life and [‘Rich Man’] is one of them,” Fairchild adds. “Could he have finished it and put it out 10 years ago? Maybe. But it might be more impactful now by looking at the way people need something to bind them together. They need something to bring them and hold them together, and we don’t have a lot of those things right now.”

“It’s kind of interesting how things that were handed off from when we were writing for Nightfall lingered around and, as we were writing for this record, other things found their way and involved themselves. Everything kind of magnetized around when we heard ‘Mr. Sun’ and started forming around that,” Sweet shares. “These songs all kind of fit together, and it’s amazing how it happens. It feels like a magical process.”

“It’s like a family with adopted children,” Schlapman adds with a laugh. “You don’t expect this thing to come out from the past. Then they do and they’re perfect.”

Another highlight of Mr. Sun can be heard at its bookend in “Friends of Mine.” Serving as a thank you to their many fans, the song also echoes their belief that we can get through this together and that, though we’re turning the corner and moving on, we also shouldn’t be afraid to sit in our grief.

With their tenth album out into the world, the band now turns their focus to how they can visually bring the Mr. Sun story to life. Though no major touring plans are in the works for this album just yet, Fairchild notes once the creative process ends, she can delve into her favorite part: how to communicate those stories to fans.

Little Big Town will hit the road this October on select dates with Wynonna Judd on “The Judds: The Final Tour,” all the while brainstorming how to bring their new project to life.

Until then, Little Big Town’s tenth studio album, Mr. Sun, is available everywhere now.

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