“We live in a very global community and people are exposed to this music and all other types of music, which is now at our fingertips,” Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles tells Alan Cackett on the eve of their first UK tour.

In four short years Sugarland have emerged as the most successful duo in country music, but behind their success at last year’s CMA Awards, when they unseated Brooks & Dunn as the perennial top duo winners, you’ll discover years of hard work and that all-important grounding that prepared singer Jennifer Nettles and mandolinist Kristian Bush for what seems at first to be instant ‘overnight’ success.

We spoke to Jennifer Nettles about Sugarland’s upcoming UK tour, how the changes from being a trio to a duo affected them and how success has transformed them from being a struggling local act to million-selling international stars. Jennifer, a striking 33-year-old with wispy blonde hair, seems unfazed by the duo’s phenomenal success, and remains very much a down-to-earth ‘southern gal.’

“I have less time to myself, otherwise the job is the same,” she explains. “My job is to write music, record music, and to perform music in such a way that it helps to speak to people. I am still doing the same thing, it’s just more people are hearing it.”

Sugarland took a different route to Nashville than most country acts. Already a popular regional group when they signed a major-label deal with Mercury Nashville in 2003, their grass-roots ascent is more typical of rock bands than country singers.

They took their name from Sugar Land, Texas because they liked the way it sounded. Nettles, Bush, and Kristen Hall, who comprised the original trio, were all veterans of Atlanta’s thriving music scene when they got together some eight years ago. Hall was a singer-songwriter who had recorded a few solo albums; Nettles, fronted popular local bands Soul Miner’s Daughter and the Jennifer Nettles Band; and Bush, was half of the major-label folk-rock duo Billy Pilgrim.

Sugarland’s reputation began spreading in country circles following their self-released album PREMIUM QUALITY TUNES in 2002. But it wasn’t all plain sailing. Kristian was working a computer job in Atlanta, Kristen was funding her own self-financed singer-songwriter albums, and Jennifer was scrabbling to make an impact with her own band. The threesome had certainly paid their road-dog dues: they hauled their own equipment, sold the T-shirts and booked their own hotels.

They decided that with Sugarland there would be no compromises. They were not prepared to bang their heads against the wall for the next dozen years and have nothing happen. They weren’t willing to play the endless round of smoky clubs, sleep in crappy motels and travel around with eight people in a van. Each one of them had traveled that road fro the previous dozen years or more and knew that it didn’t lead anywhere.

The classic Nashville success story begins with a beat-up guitar and a Greyhound bus ticket. It’s a rags-to-riches tale that’s part of country music’s hard-scrabble tradition. Sugarland knew that they had to make that Nashville connection, but they were determined that it had to be on their terms. Both Kristen and Kristian had watched promising record deals fizzle out. More than a dozen years ago Kristen had been a square-peg singer-songwriter on the new-agey Windham Hill Records, and around the same time, Kristian’s old folk-pop band, Billy Pilgrim, had been on Atlantic Records.

By the time they were ready to take on Nashville, Sugarland were already selling out 1000 seat venues in and around Atlanta area. It would have been easy for them to stay put, but they’d set their sights much, much higher. They landed an industry showcase at Nashville’s 12^th and Porter. It was a crucial gig, with several top label chiefs likely to be in attendance. They already had a sizeable fan bas back home in Atlanta, so they did no more than bus their fans in from Atlanta so that they created the right atmosphere.

It was a ploy that worked. Luke Lewis, co-chairman of Universal Music Group Nashville, was impressed not only with Sugarland’s performance, but the fact that they had original songs and a fan base that was reacting to that original music—the audience knew the songs and were singing along. Seeing their potential to build on that fan base, Lewis wasted no time in signing them to Mercury Records.

Their debut release, TWICE THE SPEED OF LIFE, was produced by Garth Fundis, who has worked with Trisha Yearwood, Alabama and many others. It spot-lighted both their writing skills and Nettles’ vibrant, outstanding lead vocals, and was also a bit more lyrically substantial than might e expected from a first-time disc. The songs deal with everyday small-town Southern life. Nettles grew up in the south-Georgia town of Douglas and was raised in the Southern Baptist tradition and this comes through strongly in Sugarland’s music.

“I think that’s something that is deeply integral to who we are,” Jennifer says. “I mean I am South Georgian and Kristian is from Eastern Tennessee. And there is something about that, like there is something in the water ... I don’t know. There is something about the heat, and the sweat and the accent—the southern drawl—and the grace and the food. And the history of culture and racial tension and everything that this part of our country has been through and grown through. I think there is something to that that is a simple rich tapestry really to pull from.”

To introduce themselves to country radio and the music media, Sugarland spent months making the promotional rounds. TWICE THE SPEED OF LIFE simmered a while before it caught on with radio, but once it did, it took off, producing hits like Baby Girl and Something More and selling more than two million copies.

Baby Girl was co-written by the Sugarland trio along with Troy Bieser, is about a girl who goes to Nashville to seek fame. The chorus is a letter to her parents and starts out: ‘Dear Mom and Dad/Please send money/I’m so broke/ And it ain’t funny/ I don’t need much/ Just enough/ To get me through.’ The music of Sugarland on that debut album was very much a celebration of all that life has in store and finding the silver lining even in the darkest clouds. The harmony-laden confections showcase Nettles’ twang-tinged, big, bluesy vocals cradled in the vocal imagination of Hall and Bush. The lyrics deal with love, with being resilient, with reaching out for more in your life and having the faith and optimism that ‘there’s gotta be something more’ out there.

With three singer-songwriters and lush harmonies, at the outset the Sugarland sound recalls 1970s super-groups like Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles and Crosby, Still and Nash—groups famous fro their feuding as well as their music. Sugarland’s rocket to stardom hit some turbulence before they got around to releasing their second album, the optimistically titled ENJOY THE RIDE. Kirsten Hall, who in her early forties was the oldest of the trio, became unhappy with life on the road and wanted to spend more time writing. So she decided to quit and left the other two with something of a quandary. Should they try to recruit a replacement? Disband entirely? Or continue as a duo. After much soul-searching, and with full support from their record label they opted for the latter.

“There was definitely a period of: ‘What’s going to happen next? How do we handle this?’ and ‘What direction do we go ... Do we stay together as a duo? Do we maybe go solo,’” admits Jennifer. “There was a lot of soul searching and a lot of honest conversations between myself, Kristian and our manager. It was a scary time when something you have is working ... you feel like you’re going out on a limb when you change that. I feel so lucky and blessed that we have seen elements that show what makes it special. I think that’s what Kristian and I do and how we write together, how we were able to carry on. My goal was to be able to continue to be an artist and a musician and that sill remains the same.’

Jennifer and Kristian had developed a chemistry together and had invested so much time and energy into Sugarland and they both felt they had more left to say. At the same time, the duo also changed producers, bringing in veteran producer Byron Gallimore, who’s worked with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. The new look duo displayed their drive and ambition with Settlin,, the first song they wrote fro the album.

“We wrote it with Tim Owens, who said: ‘I’ve got this idea for a chorus—I ain’t settlin’ for just getting’ by/ Had enough so-so for the rest of my life,’” Nettles recalls. “Kristian and I looked at each other and said: ‘OK, we’ll write that.’ We were so emotionally and spiritually ready to express that.”

It appears that Jennifer and Kristian have hit upon that special songwriting chemistry that makes the best partnerships—Lennon-McCartney; Goffin-King; Mann-Weill, etc. But as well as writing together, they have also collaborated with some of Music Row’s legendary tunesmiths, like Bill Anderson.

“A lot of times people who are songwriters by trade and in his case, an artist as well—but now he tends to write so well and remains relevant—he can write with everybody. He does what he does, and he does it so well. You sit with somebody like that and you think: ‘Well I hope some of his work will rub off’, and you just really get into the creative flow of it and say: ‘Alright if there is something you have brought in and something I have brought it, what is going to happen here.’ It is a bit intimidating but it’s thrilling at the same time.”

ENJOY THE RIDE proved to be just as critically and commercially successful as Sugarland’s debut despite the slimming down of act. Obviously, every act when they sign their first major label record deal hope for instant success, but Jennifer and Kristian must have been amazed at how quickly their career took off?

“Yeah! Definitely!” Jennifer says. “I mean, for us, really, the first two albums were a bit more experimental in the sense of we knew we were songwriters and that we could write decent songs. We knew that we understood country for all of the influences and where we grew up and all our heritage. However, we didn’t know if we could write for country radio, which is a completely different animal. So we gave it a go to say: ‘alright, if we wrote for country radio we’d sound like this, now let’s see if they actually like it and play it.’ This was anther hurdle and it took us a long time. Even with Baby Girl it was on the charts for fifty something weeks, which some people think was a blessing as we broke the longest charting single in the history of those types of records that had been kept. It was definitely learning how to find our voice within country radio and as writers, as it was different writing style for us at first.”

A big plus in the rapid rise of Sugarland came about when Jennifer got the opportunity to sing on Bon Jovi’s Who Says You Can’t Go Home. The single netted the veteran rock act its first-ever number one hit on country charts and brought Sugarland much wider visibility outside the tight confines of country music.

“Yeah! that was definitely one of those opportunities that when it comes along, absolutely, you’re gonna take it,” she says. “I grew up listening to Bon Jovi and you know Slippery When Wet, they were soundtracks from my junior high school years. I used to look at those guys and think: ‘Wow, look at how crazy...’ and, those snake skin pants and the big hair and everything that Glam rock had at the time. And to be able to go and sing on a song and perform with him was definitely a huge opportunity. Definitely a chance for people to get exposed to me in different way, to my singing and to possibly to even a different style of singing from me ... if all you had heard was Baby Girl, for example.”

There’s little doubt that the exposure of working with Bon Jovi raised Sugarland’s profile and helped them become one of top ten acts on America’s main-stream country scene. Both Jennifer and her musical partner Kristian have handled their amazing success incredibly well and remain very grounded and down-to-earth.

“I feel that is something important to be,” Jennifer says. “I also attribute it to the age that I was when we came on to that level of fame, I was in my late twenties when that happened and Sugarland really took off. There is something different about having all the traveling those ten years before Sugarland took off. So not only did I have the performing experience, but I think just a lot of maturity in that way to say: ‘Okay, I am old enough to know a bit more of who I am,’ before being thrust into the spotlight.”

The crowning glory for all those years of struggle came last November in Nashville when Sugarland were named the CMA’s Vocal Duo of the Year. It is an award that for years has seemingly been the property of Brooks & Dunn. In fact, if you look back over the past twenty-five years, there has only been three different duos to pick up that award—the Judds, Brooks & Dunn, Montgomery Gentry—and now Sugarland. Maybe Jennifer and Kristian can maintain the consistency of winning that both the Judds and Brooks & Dunn managed for years and year on end.

“Wouldn’t that be lucky,” Jennifer says. “Well, obviously, it is hard to say because this is a fickle business. We definitely have our goals, which are related to putting out the best music we can—put out the best songs, write the best record we can and give the best show we can. We like to be innovative, and you know get really creative with how we do all those things. I think it makes us different and sets us apart, and hopefully people like it. And if they do then we win awards, great. If we don’t and they still come to shows, that’s the biggest reward we can hope for, by people coming and see what we do, and buy our records.”

Sugarland’s live show is full of energy and has proven yet another of the duo’s strong suits. Alongside this they have hooky songs and a winning combination of voices and talent. In these recession era days of doom and despondency they remain obsessed with upbeat songs about living their dreams. Sugarland are having too much fun, and have too much to say, to let doom and gloom get to them.

Unlike the majority of the modern Nashville-based mainstream country acts, Sugarland have their sights set on the international market. This could prove to be an astute move on their part, as they prepare for their first UK tour. Too many acts of the past twenty years—Collin Raye, Patty Loveless, Tracy Byrd, Pam Tillis, etc—failed to embark upon foreign tours, even though their recordings were being embraced outside of America. Now, no longer on American radio or the sales charts, they see their audiences in America dwindling. More astute performers—Mary Chapin carpenter, Nanci Griffith, Steve Earle, Kathy Mattea, Suzy Bogguss—all toured Europe at the height of their commercial success. So now, thought not as popular back home, they are able to tour—and sell records—right across Europe. Sugarland are looking to repeat that kind of international success.

“I think the genre has changed, I think that country music is different now than it was twenty or thirty years ago,” Jennifer says. “It’s no longer country and western. That was something that was so very specific and I don’t even know frankly, how country and western would have translated at the time. I think that country music is different, country artists are different, music lovers and listeners in general have changed. We live in a very global community and people are now exposed to this music and all other types of music, which is now at our fingertips. You look on your ipod and you can find everything from Tom Waits to Missy Elliott and Johnny Cash to Sugarland to Kings Of Leon and everything else—there’s a wide variety there for us to enjoy.”

“Hopefully music fans in the UK will be open to our music. I love the challenge of starting back on a new market. There’s something there that is thrilling to me of winning people over and the challenge of that—so I am ready and excited.”