biography
The boys are transplants to Music City, but Hillary Scott has always called it home. The daughter of Grammy Award-winning country artist Linda Davis and accomplished musician Lang Scott, she developed her passion for music at an early age as well. In high school, she joined her parents in the Linda Davis Family Christmas Show, and was instantly hooked. "When we started doing the Christmas show I thought, 'OK, this is really what I want to do for a living,'" she recalls. "I can't imagine doing anything else."
With the guidance of acclaimed songwriter/artist Victoria Shaw, she earned plenty of local buzz as a solo artist, but a major-label opportunity evaporated in March 2006—just days after Dave arrived in town. Two months later, at downtown Nashville music spot, she recognized Charles, whose music she had been enjoying on his MySpace page. "I introduced myself and struck up a conversation," she remembers. "He said that we should get together and write sometime." Charles adds, "I just thought she was hot." Not knowing the hidden talent that would soon emerge, the boys were persistent to get together with Hillary. After they started writing, the three were inseparable the rest of the summer. "We held ourselves hostage in a writing room until the early hours of the morning every night," said Dave.
At first, the three weren't sure what exactly they were writing for—but it soon became obvious that Charles and Hillary enjoyed a combustible chemistry as a vocal duo, and that Dave's instrumental prowess and harmony vocals filled out the picture. The influences each brought to the table ran the gamut from The Allman Brothers Band to Vince Gill, from The Eagles to Keith Urban, and from Gladys Knight to Travis Tritt.
All those elements added up to something that was both youthfully modern and grounded in old-fashioned gut-level passion. "It's like a Neapolitan blend of all these flavors," says Dave. "It's a really great marriage, musically and lyrically."
It helped matters a great deal that the three also sparked on a personal level. Charles describes the group dynamic: "I'm the analytical perfectionist, Hillary brings the silliness and the emotion, and Dave is the calming glue. Everyone balances everybody else out."
Inspired by a just-for-fun photo shoot in vintage southern costumes, the trio settled on the last piece of the puzzle - a name for the band: Lady Antebellum. Purely ironic, their name represents the same sense of nostalgia found in the songs they sing.
The three began posting demos on their MySpace page, and visitor feedback was immediate and overwhelmingly positive. The reaction was just as instantaneous when Lady Antebellum began playing small gigs around Music City. "It took on a life of it's own. There was no plan, we just kept churning out as many songs as we could," marvels Dave.
The crowds grew from there—and grew, and grew again. Within a few months, they went from playing for a few dozen people to singing at the Grand Ole Opry and opening for such popular country acts as Josh Turner, Phil Vassar, Rodney Adkins and Carrie Underwood. Early fans took it upon themselves to nickname the hot trio, Lady A.
By April 2007, they had signed a recording contract with Capitol Nashville and begun recording their debut album with megaproducer Paul Worley and Hillary's mentor Victoria Shaw.