Watching Sugarland's road crew assemble the band's stage prior to a recent performance at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, N.J., it becomes obvious why the group christened its current trek The Incredible Machine Tour. With more than 250 lights, an assortment of decorative sprockets and cogs and a computerized video screen that would make Apple CEO Steve Jobs jealous, the mechanically elaborate set is truly an incredible sight to behold.
But the tour's name also doubles as the title of the country-pop duo's forthcoming album. Though the disc isn't due until Oct. 19, the group decided to hit the road this summer to build buzz for its new single ("Stuck Like Glue" will ship to radio July 26) and give fans a glimpse of its well-oiled machine.
"In country music, we tend to tour all the time, regardless of the record cycle. We thought, what if we couch this record's release in between two touring cycles and use the tour to introduce this aesthetic and visual?" says Sugarland's powerful voice, Jennifer Nettles, looking cozy and casual yet still radiant while curled up on a sofa in her dressing room before the sold-out gig. "It's a way to not only familiarize the fans with the new music, but to get them excited about what's to come. When they see this tour and the set and they say, "Wow, this is really different, really exciting and it's way better than what we've seen before,' hopefully they'll get ready to expect that from the music, too."
Fans have already come to expect quite a bit from Sugarland. Jennifer and her songwriting partner-in-rhyme Kristian Bush have established themselves as dynamic performers, one of country music's must-see live acts. With Jennifer's roof-raising voice and Kristian's manic guitar and mandolin strumming, the pair generates enough energy to power a small town- or at least their Incredible Machine set.
But despite the bells and whistles, Jennifer says the tour is more about flesh and blood. "We're very organic in Sugarland. I think a lot of times in modern country, pop and rock, things tend to be a bit modernist and sleek, where everything is metal. We wanted to break it down and make it a little more theatrical," she explains, citing their five-piece band's whimsical costumes as one example. "Because I feel that is what we do and how we make our connection. It's not just, 'Let's make it bigger and louder and put up a big screen,' where everyone is watching a television. Rather, it's, 'How can we draw fans into the music on the stage and what's happening?' We've put a lot of energy into trying to welcome people into another world."
And judging by the diverse New Jersey crowd's enthusiastic response to old faves such as "Want To" and new numbers such as "Find the Beat" and The Incredible Machine's title track- fans are happy to be whisked away to Sugarland. As Jennifer belts out "Settlin'," a rough-and-tumble fellow with a shaved head, his young son by his side, is spied singing along. During a stripped-down "Baby Girl," male voices can be clearly heard in the audience.
"I love it!" Jennifer exclaims, when asked about the band's inexplicable ability to win over “manly men” and country boys in concert, a fan base that may not be commonly associated with Sugarland. “As writers, we try to speak to the human condition, to hit the core of what it is in the human heart. ‘Baby Girl’ is not the story of a baby girl necessarily as much as it is emotionally the story of a kid who has dreams and wants to go out and make good. Or, for example, ‘Stay’ is the story of a mistress, but at the same time, it’s a story of self-redemption and of turning things around for oneself. And people love that turnaround. It’s not a gender thing.”
In fact, Jennifer's first experience with gender bending was actually years before she took to the stage as a performer. As a fan, she was mesmerized by all the high hair and makeup at her very first concert: a double bill featuring '80s hitmakers Poison and Tesla. "It was in Albany, Georgia, the first big arena I had ever been to. There were men in eyeliner and I was totally in love," says the south Georgia native.
By Jennifer's own admission, it's likely those made-up men spent more time on their manes and mascara than she does before a performance.
"I do my own hair and makeup. I don't travel around with anybody, because it's just like, please. I keep it too real for that," she laughs, raising her hand for emphasis. Along with a series of vocal exercises, it's an hourlong private process that helps soft-spoken Jennifer make the transformation into an arena-ready queen. She keeps a humidifier running in her dressing room and speaks primarily in a whisper for the first part of the day to preserve her voice.
Still, she believes there isn't much difference between reserved Jennifer and rockin' Jennifer. "I definitely feel like what I am right now is what I am onstage," she says, "That's just much more adrenalized. It's very hyped-up and 'on.'"
Fortunately, for Kristian, his tireless frontwoman is also able to turn it off- the pair travels on the same bus. "We try to keep a strong communication going. We see each other more than most couples do, so you'd kill each other if you didn't know how to communicate!" Jennifer says. "We have a healthy respect for each other and it feels very familial. At this point, he feels much like a brother would."
That siblinglike bond is evident when the duo performs, especially during their seemingly effortless choreography. Like sparring boxers, Kristian knows exactly when to bob when Jennifer weaves. He'll spin and she'll pivot. It's impressive and entertaining to observe, a commanding stage presence that may be tailor-made for-look out, Kenny Chesney-stadiums.
"Our job is to get out there, do the best that we can and dream big. And I look at it as, why not us? Somebody's got to do it. Somebody's got to be the next ones out there that do well for country music. Somebody's got to take country music to other listeners and bring them in. Somebody else has got to play stadiums. Why not us?" Jennifer asks, perhaps offering a glimpse of Sugarland's future. "We want it, we want to give it to the fans and we want to get out there and have fun."
Which is certainly what the band is doing this summer, on both its Incredible Machine Tour and during a handful of special Lilith Fair appearances.
Interestingly enough, this won't be Jennifer's first performance at the female-focused festival. "back in the '90s, the first time the Lilith Fair came around, I had a band and we played the side stage at their Atlanta date. At the end of the evening, [the headliners] invited us all up for the finale and we did 'Put a Little Love in Your Hear.' It was my first time standing on an amphitheater stage of that kind," she recalls, eager to bring some country sensibility to this year's festival. And Kristian? "I think he's excited to represent the Y chromosome," she adds, laughing.
It's that keep-'em-guessing mindset- like playing Lilith Fair or throwing a Pearl Jam or Kings of Leon cover into their set list- that defines Sugarland as artists.
"We're really lucky in that our fans not only respect our artistic growth and evolution, but they've come to anticipate it and demand it," Jennifer says. "There are some artists within each genre that classically stay the course and hold a certain line. And they're great and we need them in every genre. But there are others who push and pull and stretch and kick, and I think that's where we come in. We have a lot of people who come up to us and say, 'I don't like country music, but I love what you do.' And we say, 'You are who we write records for. Come on in. Jump in, the water's fine. It's all good.'"
And the band just might welcome more new fans to the party with its upcoming release, an album that Jennifer says may be even more anthemic than Love on the Inside, the 2008 album that mixed playful country tunes such as "It Happens" with soaring pop-inspired fare such as "Love" and "Joey."
The new singles, "Stuck Like Glue," 'is just plain, unshamed, Sugar-fun!" Jennifer enthuses. "It sticks in your brain, no pun intended. To me it feels young and hip and, of course, sassy! I can't wait for it to get out there so we can play it live in our show. We've been sitting on our hands to not play it live 'til it was released!" The song was written by Jennifer, Kristian, Kevin Griffin and Shy Carter.
"On the last record, everything was about love, but this one is more specifically about what I would call 'the heart.' What is it that creates all of this love on the inside that we talked about last time?" she says, eager for fans to hear the growth on The Incredible Machine this fall. "I think for me as a vocalist, it was superfun to be able to stretch. Kristian and I have so many diverse influences between the two of us. You can't help but pull from what you've been steeped in. Those things creep out. So you'll get to hear some of that on this record. You'll hear some Chrissie Hynde and some Blondie, as far as vocal styling."
As it turns out, fans didn't have to wait until October to hear Jennifer channel Blondie's Deborah Harry. As the stage's circular video screen-cryptically adorned with the words "then, now, now, now" around its diameter- depicts the Sugarland twosome in an '80s music-video special effect, Jennifer breaks into Blondies's 1979 new-wave hit "Heart of Glass." The enthusiastic crowd clearly doesn't mind that it's not a country song.
And for the umpteenth time that night, Sugarland attains its Holy Grail: a palpable audience-band connection.
"I enjoy making record, but to me, the live show is where it's at," Jennifer says, a few hours before the show-stopping "Heart of Glass" finale. "I want to keep connecting with people. I want to help people get more in touch with themselves by hearing a song and thinking, 'Yeah, that's me, that's how I feel.' And by doing so, they'll look around them and see 20,000 other people feeling the same way. Maybe they're not so alone in this world. That's the thing about music. It can bring people together, not only through its message, but ina moment in time, when we're out there onstage. I think there is something really beautiful about that- and I hope to keep doing it." CW
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