The Reason Why

Fans of Little Big Town who got a hint of their fourth studio album with the bluesy single “Little White Church” also got to hear what could be LBT’s last Fleetwood Mac-inspired recording. The rest of <i>The Reason Why</i> finds the quartet leaning away from their Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham influences while comfortably settling into their own skin. That’s not to say that they don’t deliver those honeyed harmonies — the title-track overflows with them — but it’s their own looser and unfettered harmonies that resonate with more originality and confidence. The band still plays like they were raised on ‘70s AM-radio gold, but they’re injecting their own tones now, especially with grittier guitars on “Runaway Train” and on the masculine ballad “Kiss Goodbye,” where background tinges of electronic ambience chirp like otherworldly crickets. Even their harder numbers strut stronger, as evidenced by “Why, Oh Why,” a roadhouse rocker that recalls Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris singing “Big Mouth Blues.” Throughout <i>The Reason Why</i>, Karen Fairchild steps up her vocal prowess, most noticeably on the infectious “All The Way Down.”