LBT, Avetts stay in top 10

Mr. Sun

Little Big Town has always been one of the more consistently good modern country groups. This latest album, not surprisingly, is also good. However, it's not exceptional. Sure, the quartet explores the happy and sad sides of love and romance, as per usual, but few tracks rise far above the merely good level. Karen Fairchild sings lead on "Three Whiskeys and the Truth," and is a dead ringer for Lady A's Hillary Scott. This is somewhat ironic, as Lady A is probably the ...

Nightfall

Little Big Town gets billed as a country music vocal group, but "Nightfall" plays out more like a four-headed singer-songwriter effort. Many of these songs hearken back to some of the best '70s introspective songwriter efforts. The album opens with "Next to You," which builds from a gentle meditation, into a full-on anthemic ode to the comfort and strength of fidelity. "Questions" interestingly finds an ex asking questions via song lyrics, which she can never ...

The Breaker

Anyone who missed Little Big Town's remarkable 2012 Unplugged performance on CMT should seek it out online. When they sing their monster hit "Pontoon," four hypnotic voices combine to harmonic perfection with no studio tricks - pick from any of the microphones, and it works as the song's lead vocal. But now that the group has ascended to the upper rung of stardom, different challenges arise. How do you compete with yourself fresh from a Grammy for Best Country Song ...