Review: Little Big Town and Sugarland bring harmony in divisive times

There have been calls for harmony this week. From this side and that faction. From cities and rural areas. From the red and the blue.

There was no better example of harmony than what the country groups Little Big Town and Sugarland brought to Target Center on Thursday night. In 2007 when they came to the Minnesota basketball arena, Sugarland headlined. This time they flipped the script and Little Big Town closed the show. No ego problems.

The two groups get along so well that they harmonized together for two numbers late in the evening. These singers from the red states of Alabama and Georgia blended up north in dyed-blue Minneapolis on — get this — “Life in a Northern Town,” the 1985 song by the British group Dream Academy.

The Nashville artists sang about how a down-on-his-luck man yearns for the halcyon days of Frank Sinatra, John F. Kennedy and the Beatles, essentially being hopeful even if reality suggests he has no reason to do so. Doesn’t that sound like half of our country this week?

With six voices harmonizing “Ah-hey-ma-ma-ma, dee-doo-din-nie-ya-ya,” the chorus of “Northern Town” echoed throughout Target Center like a cross between “Kumbaya, My Lord” and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” It was the highlight of a long evening of smartly crafted country-pop that demonstrated that Sugarland and Little Big Town are both worthy headliners.

After a short but encouraging opening set by a trio of young Georgia sisters known as the Castellows, Sugarland, an on-again, off-again duo, instantly set the mood by offering the theme song to “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” You know, won’t you be my neighbor? It was a perfect olive branch before Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush delivered the bluesy “There Goes the Neighborhood,” the title track of their new EP.

Sugarland’s emphatic anthem “Bigger” from 2018 was ideal for the occasion to erase the divisiveness. “‘Cause we were born for better days,” Nettles belted. “We’ll find a way, yeah. We’re gonna be bigger.”

Nettles’ delightfully twangy voice was packed with passion, joy, sadness or whatever emotion was called for, as Bush played the trusty sidekick strumming a guitar (or mandolin) with a Cheshire cat smile.

Backed by five musicians, Nettles and Bush filled the stage with spunk, spirit and playful choreography that elevated Nettles’ promise of “baptizing you in the name of nostalgia.”

In Sugarland’s first Twin Cities appearance since 2018 at the State Fair, they played such crowd-pleasing oldies as the peppy “It Happens” and the powerful ballad “Stay.” Many of the 14,000 concertgoers probably wished Sugarland would have stayed onstage for more than 50 minutes.

Nettles and Bush returned later for a pair of selections with Little Big Town. After “Northern Town,” the groups collaborated on their new single “Take Me Home,” a cover of a 1985 Phil Collins tune. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer said the song was inspired by the movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” about a man institutionalized, but many listeners have interpreted it to be about going home after a long absence.

Celebrating its 25th anniversary (with the same lineup, no less), Little Big Town is often referred to as the Fleetwood Mac of country music. Yes, they have multiple lead singers, men and women (two members are married to each other) and wonderful group vocal harmonies.

Their strength was their harmonizing, notably on “Bones,” “Next to You” and a rote but invigorating reading of Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain.” Little Big Town peppered their 90-minute set with pop and rock covers, including Taylor Swift’s “Better Man,” Elton John’s “Rocket Man” and the Joe Cocker treatment of “With a Little Help From My Friends.” But their biggest country hits, especially the closing one-two punch of the seductive “Girl Crush” and the swampy “Boondocks,” earned the same enthusiastic reception that Sugarland had earlier.

Little Big Town lacks a knockout lead singer, though Karen Fairchild stood out and her husband, Jimi Westbrook, held his own. Sometimes, the quartet, backed by four musicians, seemed lost on the spacious stage, whether it was their lack of choreography, their unimaginative videos (a shot of the front of a slow-moving pontoon boat on a still lake during “Pontoon”) or their banal patter (Fairchild commented on singer Kimberly Schlapman’s “bronzered” skin).

Fairchild did make a timely and pertinent remark in introducing 2020′s “The Daughters.” “This song feels important right now,” she said. Then she sang: “I’m just looking for a god for the daughters.” It was another call for hope in these fractured times.