This story originally appeared in Issue #5 of Paste Magazine in the fall of 2003, as part of our first 4 To Watch, republished in celebration of Paste’s 20th Anniversary.
In 1993, 23-year-old Kristian Bush signed a two-record deal with Atlantic as part of the duo Billy Pilgrim. Ten years later, he’s expecting lightening to strike a second time. Joined by two more veteran singer-songwriters, Kristen Hall and Jennifer Nettles, the new band, Sugarland, is a far cry from Pilgrim’s mix of grand, hooky modern rock and coffeehouse folk.
“We’re going to be on a major label, probably out of Nashville or L.A., and they’re going to play us on country radio,” says Bush with a confidence that some of his friends have laughed at—until seeing the band live or hearing its debut, Premium Quality Tunes. “They’re gonna find us as the answer to that mysteriously little piece that joins alt.country and commercial country together. They can’t figure out that piece yet.”
Hall, who’s made her living mostly as a songwriter after spending the first half of the ’90s touring on her own or opening for the Indigo Girls, has always been intrigued by that intersection of country and rock ’n’ roll.
“I always thought Neil Young would have been country if he didn’t smoke pot,” she said. “[And] I love the Dixie Chicks. The first time I heard them, I thought, ‘Wow, this is kind of my music with a twang. I could really lean in that direction.’”
When Hall started kicking the idea of a country band around with David LaBruyere, bass player for John Mayer, Bush joined his longtime friends with an idea for the song that would become Tunes’ “Tennessee.” When Hall put a full band together, they began the search for a singer. Jennifer Nettles was packing out theaters in the Southeast so they didn’t think she’d be an option.