Lady Antebellum photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.
April 24, 2008 - Less than a year ago, no one had heard of Lady Antebellum. Now they have the No. 1 country album in the nation.
The trio — Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott and Dave Haywood — signed last June; took a slow trip up the charts with its debut single, "Love Don’t Live Here"; and only released its self-titled starter album last week. But they sold more than 43,000 copies, including 9,000 digital downloads of the CD, vaulting them to No. 1 on the Billboard country albums list, plus No. 4 on the all-genre chart The Billboard 200.
"Wow," group member Dave Haywood exclaimed. "As the saying goes, ‘it takes a village,’ and I’m the first to tell you that we have the best village of people around us who makes these things happen. It’s a beautiful day."
Lady Antebellum competes with Carolina Rain and the Wreckers for Top New Duo or Vocal Group during the 43rd annual Academy of Country Music Awards, slated for May 18 in Las Vegas. The band will also appear at Nashville’s LP Field on Friday, June 6, during the CMA Music Festival.