Lady Antebellum are quite possibly the biggest American country band in the world. Storming out of Tennessee, USA in 2006; the band are famous for selling ten million albums in their home country and having several smash hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100.
The band are comprised out of one core trio. Hilary Scott and Charles Kelley both share lead vocals on their songs, with Kelley also playing the rhythm guitar, whilst multi-instrumentalist Dave Haywood sings backup vocals while playing lead guitar, piano and mandolin.
Scott is the only one of the trio actually born in Tennessee, with both Kelley and Haywood being born in Georgia, the former was raised there while the latter was raised in North Carolina for the first ten years of his life. Haywood’s family moved back to Georgia and the two natives became friends in middle school, and by 2005 they were meeting up to write songs together every other weekend.
Like many other before and many others who will go on to do so, creating music became their passion and they came to Nashville seeking to make Kelley’s dreams of country stardom a reality. In comes Hilary Scott, who recognised Kelley from his MySpace page (that’s right, we’re going way, way back here!) when they met in a bar.
The three of them started writing songs together and country history was made. They signed to Capitol Records in 2007 and released their self-titled debut the year after; it was an instant hit, hitting the top spot on the Billboard country album charts in the first week of release.
Their music is a seamless mix of the accessible yet artistic, and their reign on top of the country world is only just beginning. If you join them for the ride now, there will be sights and sounds that you’ll never forget.
Penelope Road
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