Little Big Town photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

When you've spent the better part of two years in the stratosphere, it's all the more important to stay true to the elements of life that really matter—friends, family, the power of music. Those are the things that give you A Place to Land.

Little Big Town's Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Phillip Sweet and Jimi Westbrook have learned that lesson well. By the time the group's shimmering harmonies, knockout stage shows and superb songcraft earned them a well deserved breakthrough with 2005's platinum The Road to Here, the bond among them was already more family than friendship.

Since then, they've shared stages with superstars like George Strait, Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban, John Mellencamp, Lindsay Buckingham and Martina McBride; earned nominations at the Grammy Awards, the Country Music Association Awards and Academy of Country Music Awards; earned an Academy of Country Music Award for Top New Vocal Group; received Billboard Awards for Independent Artist of the Year and Album of the Year; and seen four songs from A Road to Here become Top 20 hits ("Boondocks," "Bring It On Home," "Good As Gone" and "A Little More You").

Most importantly, they've done a lot of living over the last two years. All four members have gotten married (Fairchild and Westbrook to one another), and Schlapman and Sweet have each become parents. "Our lives couldn't have changed more than they have," Arkansas native Jimi says with a laugh. "We've had a lot of highs and some lows, but we kept getting stronger. We achieved this together, and it means so much to us that we share it all."

To process all that life experience into music, the group settled in during the summer of 2007 at longtime producer Wayne Kirkpatrick's studio outside Nashville—a relaxed environment where the creativity, intimacy and warmth essential to Little Big Town's signature sound naturally thrives. They emerged with A Place to Land, an album that reflects both the seismic shifts in their own lives and the emotions they've seen reflected on the faces of their fans.

"This record is the heart and soul of what we're about," says Karen, who was raised in and around Atlanta. "We did a lot of soul searching while making this record. It was a very intense and gratifying, experience."

Of course, the first thing to capture the ear about A Place to Land is Little Big Town's impossibly lush harmonies. After singing together for so long and touring so relentlessly, the foursome's soulful vocal interplay has become second nature—as has the openness with which each shares emotion—with one another and with the listener. "I think there's a maturity that comes through because of all the work we've done together," Jimi says. "We've shared so much, and we connect on such a deep level, and you can hear that on this record."