In the digital age, Little Big Town is old-fashioned. And the Grammy-winning quartet wears it like a badge of honor.
In fact, the "Boondocks" band members, who have been together for more than 25 years, believe many of the values that have defined their career are becoming a "Dying Art."
Throughout the decades, the country music vocal group has watched social media increasingly replace human connection. They've observed the music-making process become more digitized. Now, they're even witnessing AI songs climb the charts.
It's a far different musical landscape than the one they entered in 1998 when they first formed their band.
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"I have yet to hear an AI vocal that has real soul in it," Karen Fairchild told The Tennessean during an interview at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
"We're human beings. We want to make human music," Phillip Sweet added. "We don't want to be all digitized. We're analog ... with all of its flaws and everything."
On their new album "It's A Dying Art," which will be released Aug. 28 on MCA, the group embraces the idea that real art is shaped by human imperfection, grit and lived experience.
They wouldn't have it any other way.
An album that started accidentally
"Dying Art" is an acoustic, harmony-drenched collection of songs that highlights Little Big Town's signature soaring four-part vocals.
Balancing heartbreak ballads with more upbeat, feel-good arrangements, the record features tracks with collaborators including Ashley Monroe, Jason Isbell and Kelsea Ballerini.
At first, Little Big Town didn't set out to make an album.
In 2024, they had just completed their 25th anniversary project, a career-spanning "Greatest Hits" album, as well as their first holiday album and a massive Nashville homecoming concert at Bridgestone Arena.
"We were kind of burned out," Fairchild said. "We were just writing to write and not really thinking about a record in the beginning."
"We didn't want to make a commitment," added Kimberly Schlapman, at least not to making a new album right away.
But as songs began to accumulate in October 2025, the band booked a handful of sessions with Nashville producer Gena Johnson, who has worked alongside Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile and Dolly Parton.
"It's like an appetizer. Let's order another," Sweet said of the group's gradual return to the studio, adding that Johnson's artistic vision helped propel the project forward.
"Gena was just a fresh perspective, a filter we hadn't looked through yet," Sweet said.
"LBT is a force," Johnson told The Tennessean. "They show up for one another in such beautiful and intentional ways, a true chosen family.
"I feel so honored to have witnessed that and to now be a part of it. During the album-making process, it was important to me to lean into all of their colors on this album. Touching on who they’ve been and focusing on where they are headed. We intentionally leaned into serving the song and the moment, being present and letting our collective energy lead the art."
Though a new outlook shaped the album, the band's decades-long history remained the cornerstone of the project.
On the title track, the four sing: "Meet me downstairs in the middle of the night / We won’t sleep until we get it right / Pour it all out in two glasses of wine / We’re still good after all this time."
It's a hopeful, deeply appreciative love song to one another as bandmates, but more importantly, to their enduring group effort.
Staying up until the morning, frustrated because you can't gt the chorus of a song quite right, is what makes artistry artistry, the band explained. Sure, it's more work, but it's worth it.
"It's the intangible human," Jimi Westbrook said. "The pure humanity," Fairchild added. "It shouldn't be perfect."
The album also includes tracks that are self-indulgently sorrowful, like "Sucker For A Sad Song" featuring Ashley Monroe. An homage to tearjerkers that came before, the lyrics include references to Brook Benton's "Rainy Night in Georgia," Lefty Frizzell's "The Long Black Veil" and Willie Nelson's "Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain."
Breakup ballad "The Door" includes vocals from Isbell, while the flirty, late-night track "Closing Time" gets a hand from Ballerini.
It's also the band's first time inviting collaborators into the studio for an album of original material — appropriate for an album centered around human connection.
The record has tracks ready for sing-alongs, heartbreak anthems, piano ballads and tunes that feel campfire-ready, with an acoustic guitar in tow.
Yet, every song has one thing in common: They feel lived-in, like the band itself.
So, how do you save a dying art?
When it comes to the album's title, the band explained "Dying Art" has a multipronged meaning.
"We were thinking about relationships that everyone in the room had and how hard you have to work to keep enduring love going. Those things seem to be a dying art these days," Fairchild said, whether it's a romantic relationship, friendship or family.
Technology has made it even harder.
"We're not really looking at each other in the eye anymore or touching each other," Schlapman said. All four members of Little Big Town have children, and they feel the social erosion caused by devices.
"Sit down, put your phone away, write a handwritten note. Take somebody some flowers or a hamburger or whatever it is — just get the human connection," Schlapman tells her children.
The band tries to expose their children to "real music," they said, the less computerized the better.
"There's a difference between a Willie Nelson record and something that sounds like it doesn't have any personality or voice or history or living," Fairchild said. "There's definitely a difference when you hear somebody, let's say Olivia Dean, for instance, singing with everything in her body — it comes across."
Westbrook added that, as songwriters, it's disconcerting to see how many people listen to those AI songs and don't care if a human being was involved in the creation process or not.
But for Little Big Town, "Dying Art" isn't just a commentary on modern life. It's also a contemplation of the loyalty that has kept the group together for so long.
Together, Little Big Town has persevered through record label drops, working day jobs to get by, divorces, family cancer battles and profound grief, including the sudden death of Schlapman’s first husband in 2005 due to a heart attack.
The band got close to calling it quits.
"There have been plenty of times when we had an excuse to quit, but our loyalty to each other and to our music kept us moving forward," Schlapman said.
"There's a healing balm that music gives," Fairchild added."There's been so many times for each of us that we've walked out on that stage and didn't think we really had it in us that night," she continued.
"But then you see those souls out there and you realize: 'This is what I was born to do.'"
After the release of "It's A Dying Art," Little Big Town will hit the road.
The group is set to perform on NBC's "TODAY" Plaza on Sept. 1 before kicking off its "For the Art of It" tour across the U.S. and Canada on Sept. 24.
In December, the band will return home to Nashville's Ryman Auditorium for a three-night holiday residency, running Dec. 8-10.
To learn more, visit littlebigtown.com.
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Reach out to Audrey Gibbs, a music reporter at The Tennessean, at agibbs@tennessean.com. You can also follow her on Instagram at @audreyraegibbs.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Little Big Town takes on new musical landscape with 'It's A Dying Art'
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