Lady Antebellum, Georgia Theatre, 4/28/07

Rachel A. with Lady A! Left to right: Dave Heywood, Charles Kelley, Rachel Atcheson and Hillary Scott)

Photo Credit: Rachel Atcheson

by Rachel Atcheson
05/03/2008

You can add another name to the long list of big-time bands with ties to Athens.

While Lady Antebellum’s history as a band is remarkably short, two of its members have a long history together, which involves them both graduating from the University of Georgia.

Lead singer Charles Kelley and guitarist Dave Heywood met in middle school in Augusta, Ga, and began writing music together while attending UGA. The duo eventually moved to Nashville to stay with Kelley’s singer/songwriter brother, Josh. (Recognize the name? Josh Kelley is married to Grey’s Anatomy and 27 Dresses sweetheart Katherine Heigl.)

In 2006, fate threw Hillary Scott into Charles’ path. Already MySpace friends, the two met in downtown Nashville and agreed to write together. Soon enough, they realized that they had something special.

Now, less than two years later, their debut and self-titled album is No. 1 on the country charts and it’s all come full circle. They’ve been nominated as “Top New Group” at the Academy of Country Music Awards, and the list of names the band has opened for is any aspiring country musician’s dream. Martina McBride, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw and Alan Jackson are just a few. Heywood told me before the show that they couldn’t be happier to be back in Athens, and Kelley shared that same sentiment later with the crowd. And a very enthusiastic crowd it was!

Even though their album was only released two weeks ago, the audience was very familiar with every song the band preformed. From original songs like “Looking for a Good Time” to the essential high energy covers like “Ramblin’ Man” and “Hard to Handle,” Lady Antebellum kept the crowd transfixed and wanting more from start to finish.

In between the band’s good-natured banter, Kelley showed off his vocal abilities with Hal Ketchum’s “Small Town Saturday Night” before Scott blew the roof off the place with a cover of Faith Hill’s “Piece of My Heart.” The crowd’s reaction to these songs was almost nothing compared to the explosion that accompanied the opening chords to the current single, “Love Don’t Live Here.”

The trio left the stage just as they entered it, to the sound of the Georgia Theatre crowd going crazy. After several minutes of chanting “Lady A, Lady A!”, the audience was rewarded for its efforts when the band came back out for one more song in what Scott claimed was their first ever encore.

Welcome back, Lady A!

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