Mercury Nashville 011273
Producer: Sugarland and Byron Gallimore
Track listing: All I Want to Do / It Happens / We Run / Joey / Love / Already Gone / Keep You / Take Me As I Am / What I’d Give / Steve Earle / Very Last Country Song / Fall Into Me (Bonus Track) / Operation: Working Vacation (Bonus Track) / Wishing (Bonus Track) / Life in a Northern Town [Live] (Bonus Track) / Come On Get Higher [Live] (Bonus Track) All I Want to Do
August 16, 2008
1 week
For the Atlanta, Georgia-based country duo known as Sugarland, Love on the Inside was both an artistic and commercial triumph that succeeded in capturing the group’s live sound while selling enough to reach the top spot of the album chart in its second week of release.
Initially a trio consisting of singer Jennifer Nettles, songwriter Kristen Hall, and guitarist Kristian Bush, the group almost immediately found an audience with its 2004 debut album, Twice the Speed of Life. The album reached number two on Billboard’s Heatseekers new artist chart, number 3 on the Top Country Albums chart, and number 16 on The Billboard 200.
While Sugarland was a new group, all three members of the combo had paid their dues. Bush was a member of the mid-’90s folk duo Billy Pilgrim, which recorded a pair of albums for Atlantic Records and two subsequent indie releases. Hall was a solo artist that recorded an independent album before issuing two albums on Windham Hill’s High Street in the first half of the ’90s, while Nettles was the voice of Soul Miner’s Daughter, an Athens, Georgia folk duo. With Sugarland, the trio’s members finally found the success that eluded its previous musical excursions.
Yet despite that success, all was not well within the group. Hall, who had writing credits on every song on the band’s debut, abruptly left the fold in early 2006, leaving Nettles and Bush to carry on as a duo. Her contribution to the group’s second album, Enjoy the Ride, was limited to a co-writing the final track, “Sugarland.” Nonetheless, the personnel change didn’t adversely affect the group’s popularity, as the second set peaked at number two on the Top Country Albums list and reached number four on The Billboard 200. Adding to the duo’s growing popularity was Nettles’s guest shot on Bon Jovi’s Number One country hit “Who Says You Can’t Go Home.”
In spite of its growing popularity, the duo was unhappy with the overly polished sound of its first two efforts. In an attempt to rectify the situation, Nettles and Bush were able to persuade the powers that be at Mercury Nashville to let them produce the album with the aid of co-producer Byron Gallimore.
“[Our fans would say] ‘You sound so much better live,’ “Nettles told the Associated Press. In an attempt to capture that concert sound, the band used a different technique in the studio. Instead of opting for the more modern approach of recording each instrument and Nettles’ vocals separately, Sugarland went old school in the month-long sessions held Southern Tracks Recording in their hometown of Atlanta. “Jennifer is singing while we’re playing, and that’s the take,” Bush explained to Alan Light in The New York Times.
Sugarland won fans over with a more rock-leaning orientation that still managed to appeal to the country crowd. As with its previous efforts, the album featured a smash country single in “All I Want to Do,” but the album also showcased some of their less traditional influences. “Steve Earle” is a tribute to the roots rock rebel of the same name in which Nettles’ pleads for him to “write a song for me.” The deluxe edition of the album included a live cover of the Dream Academy’s 1985 hit, “Life in a Northern Town,” with guests Little Big Town and Jake Owen.
The group also went the less traditional route in its marketing plan. During its first week of release, Love on the Inside was only available as a pricier deluxe edition boasting “Life in a Northern Town” and four other bonus tracks. Nonetheless, the album still sold 314,000 copies, enough for it to become Sugarland’s first Country chart-topper, but shy of the Miley Cyrus’s sales of 371,000 for her Breakout album. Yet, with the release of the less-expensive standard version of Love on the Inside the following week, Sugarland was able to rack up 171,000 in sales in its second week, bypassing Cyrus to score its first Number One.
That triumph was slightly marred a few days later when Hall filed a $1.5 million suit against Nettles and Bush, claiming that as a founding member of the group she is due a portion of the profits the band has generated since her departure.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of August 16, 2008
1. Love on the Inside, Sugarland
2. Breakout, Miley Cyrus
3. Mamma Mia!, Soundtrack
4. Rock N Roll Jesus, Kid Rock
5. Tha Carter III, Lil Wayne