Concert preview
Lady Antebellum
With Kacey Musgraves and Kip Moore. 7 p.m. Friday. $25.25-$50. Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood, 2002 Lakewood Way, Atlanta. 1-800-745-3000.
On a rare day off from Lady Antebellum’s “Take Me Downtown” tour, Dave Haywood was hanging out at the Nashville home he shares with wife Kelli and their dog, Spinee, engaging in typical country music star behavior: catching up on laundry.
The tour is in support of the band’s fifth studio album, “Golden,” which launched in January and will keep University of Georgia grad Haywood, Charles Kelley and Hillary Scott on the road through August.
Lady Antebellum — and tour openers Kip Moore and Kacey Musgraves — kick off the season at Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood on Friday and for Haywood, whose family lives in Augusta, and fellow Bulldog Kelley, it’s “pretty much the hometown show.”
“We grew up driving to Lakewood to see concerts — Dave Matthews Band, Aerosmith — so it’s special,” Haywood, the band’s guitarist, mandolin player and pianist, said. “It’s really cool when people you grew up with can come out and see what you’re doing. A lot of people we went to college with, they live in Alpharetta and Atlanta and South Georgia so Atlanta is a meeting place.”
Some thoughts from the soft-spoken and genial Haywood about a few other topics.
On Lady A’s pre-show ritual:
“We try to treat it like an athletic event and get fired up and jump around and listen to some music. We have a pingpong table backstage and play a lot of that to get warmed up. We try to warm up our voices and sing a couple of choruses together. Our best shows are when we’re hanging out the most beforehand.”
On hooking up with newly minted Grammy and Academy of Country Music awards winner Kacey Musgraves as a tour opener:
“We feel in a really tiny way we discovered her before others did. She opened for us in Europe a couple of years ago. We had gotten an early copy of her record (‘Same Trailer, Different Park’) and were like gosh, that is so cool. I literally remember the three of us in our different dressing rooms blaring it. She’s such a great songwriter and not afraid to say what she wants to say. We really believe in what she’s doing and what we wanted to do for our show is give a good balance of where country music is now. She’s a cool country/indie songwriter and Kip (Moore) is a total rocker and then you get a group like us. We wanted a package that shows all facets.”
On how Lady A’s live shows have evolved:
“I feel we’ve been able to build a much more high-energy show than in the past. Having songs like ‘Compass’ and ‘Downtown’ with these really great tempos makes a difference. It used to be that the main anchors of our shows were ballads, but I feel now they’re these big tempos. We have a fresh show … we want to tour for 20 years and in order to do that, you have to have a show that people want to see every year.”
On straddling the line between country and pop:
“For us, I think it’s been a natural evolution. It goes back to how we started as a band. It was really just the style that came out from day one. ‘Just a Kiss or ‘Need You Now,’ it’s always been an eclectic group. We have a lot of influences. We love classic rock a lot and a lot of classic country and pop music. We love Imagine Dragons and Justin Timberlake. But we consciously try to be real to who we are. We’re all from the South and that’s our core. The Allmans, those vocal groups are all influences.
On covering Anna Kendrick’s “Pitch Perfect” hit “Cups (When I’m Gone”) in concert:
It was an idea Hillary had. We like to change in and out with covers. We’ll do the Avicii song, ‘Wake Me Up,’ as well. It’s just fun to try old and new stuff and countrify what is going on in pop radio.
On what’s next after this summer tour:
“We’re working on some new stuff for sure. The writing process really never stops. We’ve been writing a bunch on the road. Josh Kear, who wrote ‘Need You Now’ with us, came out on the road for a few weeks. We can’t sit still. We’re hoping to record this tour, too. We want to capture it, but we’re not sure yet for what purpose.”
