Lady Antebellum “Need You Now,” on Capitol/Nashville Records

Written by Susie Salva

Nashville based county music’s power trio Lady Antebellum has released their sophomore effort, “Need You Now,” on Capitol/Nashville Records. If you are not a fan of country music Lady Antebellum will make you a convert. With the absence of many fiddles and their contemporary pop crossover sound this album is radio ready. No sophomore slump here. In fact they have improved with more experience. Lady Antebellum has been awarded Top New Duo or Group in 2009 by the Academy of Country Music and New Artist of the Year. More recently on April 18, 2010 the group was awarded Top Vocal Group, Song of the Year (“Need You Now,”) and Single of the Year (“Need You Now,”) at the 45th ACM Awards.

The trio is comprised of Charles Kelley (lead and background vocals), Dave Haywood (background vocals, guitar, piano, and mandolin), and Hillary Scott (lead and background vocals.) There is something very special with the trading off of lead vocals between Kelley and Scott and the three part harmony characteristic of their delightful and personal songs.

“Need You Now,” the title of Lady Antebellum second album, lifted for its leadoff track, which explores the desperate longings that make separated lovers yearn to reconnect in the wee small hours of the morning. The prologue to the songs begins by playing a voice mail on an answering machine leading into the first verse of the tune. The song is a hit single and Kelley and Scott are sharing the vocal duties on this sensational track.

Less than two years after the trio’s debut, “Love Don’t Live Here,” first hit stores with a splash, “Need You Now,” is at hand to satisfy their fans hunger for more material.  This CD comes right on the heels of a couple of prominent Grammy nominations and two key wins at November’s CMA awards – Single of the Year (“I Run to You,”) and Vocal Group of the Year.

Naturally with all of these accolades Lady Antebellum has had some stress put upon them to deliver the goods time and time again. Their sharp attention to detail and fantastic harmonic vocals will definitely appease their scads of fans. “I’ll be honest,” says Hillary Scott. “Somebody asked me if I was on such a high about the awards and I said, ‘Absolutely,’ But I was thinking to myself, ‘I’m also a little terrified. ‘Because you hit a point like that and you really can’t go backwards…” “If anything, though, it makes us want to work harder and record even better songs and continue to grow as performers and prove that we’re deserving of it (awards),” says Scott.

“Need You Now,” has a good deal of subtle mirroring in its themes.”American Honey,” a gorgeous ballad about being awakened to life by wistful remembrance of things past, followed by “Hello World,” which deals with the same kind of wake-up call, but looking toward a more hopeful future. The album is bookended with two of its most emotional naked numbers; the closing “Ready to Love,” which Hillary calls, “probably the most personal song on the record,” provides a sort of answer to the title track, which opens the album.

The fifth track, “Perfect Day,” is a happy little ditty about living in the moment and experiencing the perfect day whatever that may be for you. “Love Is Pain,” Though it may not work between two lovers you still cannot walk away from the relationship. “When You Got A Good Thing,” deals with the feeling of being a lucky man happy with the way things are working in the relationship and the ability to bring out the best in each other. This track has a haunting guitar solo rounding out the back end of the song. “Stars Tonight,” is the quintessential anthem song written to rock arenas together with fists pumping in the air. It’s intended as “get up on your feet live song,” says Haywood.

“If I Knew Then,” speaks to the idea of even knowing what was going on in the relationship they would do it all the same in the end. “Loves only comes once in awhile.” The final track, “Ready to Love Again,” the fear of living alone falling out of love and finding what it would take to fall in love again.

The band is able to balance the emotional, with gut level balladry and high octane, arena-ready rockers. Members of this trio co-wrote eight of the 11 tracks and were able to rely on a much tighter intra-band bond than they had when they were crafting the first album, which was recorded not that long after old pals Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood got together with new acquaintance Hillary Scott to form the group back in 2006. The other songs were written with the help of veteran writer/producer Paul Worley. “Having the two lead vocals there can take people into different journeys. And I think there are people who are just naturally gonna gravitate to her (Hillary Scott) that aren’t going to gravitate to mine, and visa versa. And then to top of it, you’ve got this harmony potential, with Dave. When we mix the record, we don’t even realize how important the three-part harmony is until it’s not there. We definitely feel very fortunate that we found each other and it all happened,” says Kelley.

The band realized early that they had something special working together better than becoming solo artists. Their chemistry between this trio is infectious and makes their songs so personal and believable. They are true artists and will have a fantastic career together. For more on Lady Antebellum please go to:

www.ladyantebellum.com