Little Big Town Embrace and Back Up Their New Song, ‘Over Drinking’
There's something masculine about Little Big Town's new single "Over Drinking" that the group doesn't just embrace, they back up.
Heavy guitars, a beer-swilling blues shuffle and lyrics about drinking with the boys are contrasted with singer Karen Fairchild's smoky vocals. Talking to Taste of Country at Hometown Rising in Louisville, Ky., the CMA Vocal Group of the Year nominees recognized that this kind of song usually goes to a male country artist, which is of course part of why they loved it.
“To me it was one of those classic sounding, honky-tonk songs that everybody loves,” the group's Jimi Westbrook says.
"I got a text that’s like, 'Good ole country music, hell yes!'," Phillip Sweet adds in a throaty, backwoods kind of accent. "That was the reaction we got."
Little Big Town had been working on their new Nightfall album for 18 months and were finished when they heard "Over Drinking." The turnaround from demo to radio single was quick (they guess it took about a week), but the response was immediate.
“I love the line that says, ‘If I’m out drinking and I’ve tied one on / I’m drunk because I’m happy not drunk because you’re gone,’” Fairchild says.
"That line live," Kimberly Schlapman adds, "connects with the people more than any of the lines in the whole song."
"I still go out with the boys and knock back a few / But I'm over drinking over you," Fairchild adds to close the chorus. The idea of drinking with the boys has historically been a guy thing in country music. LBT turn that on its head.
“What’s a good hang without some beautiful girls hanging out with you at the bar?" Sweet wonders.
"And we can hang with the boys. Oh yeah!" Schlapman adds rather nonchalantly. We had to get details — names even — but they made it easy.
Fairchild: "Just ask Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton —"
"We’ve out-drank all those folks," Westbrook swears.
"We actually have out-drank Jaren and the boys from the Cadillac Three," Sweet says. Now they're just piling on, right? "Brothers Osborne, you ask any of them and they’re scared to death. Midland, they’re scared of us, too."
Of course Taste of Country went to an independent source to see if that's true. Watch the video above to see which hard-partying rocker-turned-country singer vouched for Little Big Town.
The band also share more secrets about their upcoming ninth studio album. Look for Little Big Town to begin the Nightfall Tour in 2020.
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