In the summer of 2006, three gifted young adults walked into a house hoping to create music together—and Lady Antebellum walked out.
The sound that Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood cooked up while hanging at the Nashville-area home of Charles’ brother throughout the summer of 2006 is a unique blend that mingles classic country, 1960s R&B soulfulness and the heart-on-the-sleeve openness of 1970s singer-songwriters, all presented with a razor-sharp contemporary edge. It’s a sound that had Lady Antebellum, as the threesome dubbed itself, generating deafening buzz as one of modern country’s brightest hopes even before the release of their new self-titled debut album.
Already the trio earned “Top New Group” honors at the 2008 Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards. They’ve watched the group-penned first single from Lady Antebellum, “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore,” soar up the country radio charts, while its video has become a staple on CMT and GAC. They’ve performed on the legendary Grand Ole Opry, served as the opening act on Martina McBride’s 2008 arena tour, and opened shows for Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood, Tim McGraw, Alan Jackson, Taylor Swift, Josh Turner, Phil Vassar, Rodney Atkins and Little Big Town. Outlets like Billboard, Country Weekly, MSN Music and the Boston Globe included Lady Antebellum among their annual shortlists of artists to watch in 2008, and Nashville Lifestyles magazine flat-out called them “the next big thing.” GAC has devoted a special, Introducing … Lady Antebellum, to tracing their brief but eventful history.
Martina summed up the general consensus of both fans and the media when she told one audience on their tour together, “You can say you saw them when.”
But it all began on that day in 2006 when Hillary Scott’s sultry alto, Charles Kelley’s gritty tenor and multi-instrumentalist/ harmony vocalist Dave Haywood’s musical overview first intersected. Hillary, whose parents are Grammy-winning country artist Linda Davis and accomplished musician Lang Scott, had met Charles at a downtown Nashville music spot—having recognized him from his MySpace page. She introduced herself, and they struck up a conversation that ended in an agreement to try writing together.
Enter Dave Haywood, Charles’ friend since they met at Riverside Middle School in Augusta, Ga., and co-writer since they attended college together at the University of Georgia. Dave had moved to Nashville in March 2006 at his pal’s suggestion, and both were staying at the home of Charles’ brother, singer-songwriter Josh Kelley. Hillary came by the house, and over the ensuing months she, Charles and Dave fell into a fruitful songwriting partnership. “We held ourselves hostage in a writing room until the early hours of the morning every night,” Dave remembers.
At first, the three weren’t sure what exactly they were writing for—but it soon became obvious that Charles and Hillary produced a combustible chemistry as a vocal duo, and that Dave’s instrumental prowess and harmony vocals filled out the picture perfectly. It helped matters a great deal that the three also sparked as friends, finding an easy balance of personalities. “I’m the analytical perfectionist, Hillary brings the silliness and the emotion, and Dave is the calming glue,” Charles explains. “Everyone balances everybody else out.”
