Five years have passed since Sugarland‘s Kristian Bush and Jennifer Nettles shared a stage. The duo played about 25 shows in 2019, with more planned for 2020. But, like most other things, Sugarland fell victim to the pandemic. The duo got back on track in 2024 with a new EP, There Goes The Neighborhood, a collaboration, and an arena tour with Little Big Town that they launched last week.
After stepping on stage with Nettles, Bush said it felt like no time had passed.
“Being back on tour is just as natural as breathing,” Bush said. “No matter how anxious I was about, ‘Man, it’s been a minute.’ Turns out, my body remembers everything.”
The pair play for nearly an hour every night, and Bush promised Sugarland fans would hear all of their favorite songs. Given the duo’s catalog—it could be a hefty setlist. The band’s hit songs include “Baby Girl,” “Stuck Like Glue,” “Settlin,’” “All I Want To Do,” “Already Gone,” “Want To,” “Something More” and “It Happens.”
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More than one dozen dates are left on the Take Me Home Tour, which started in Greenville, South Carolina. It will wind through Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, Minnesota, South Dakota, Illinois, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, and more between now and mid-December.
Sugarland Marks 20 Years of “Baby Girl”
Sugarland is the middle act on the tour because Little Big Town is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The bands have toured together many times in their careers and freely share tools and equipment. However, when it comes to performing, Bush said there are no holds barred.
“Jennifer and I are performing as pretty much a band on a stage,” Bush said. “Interestingly enough, for as dramatic as this surely is, this is where we are hard to beat as a football team. We walk on stage, I’m like, ‘Okay, here we go.’ And it’s just like blood is in the water.”
Bush will play with Sugarland and his folk-rock duo Billy Pilgrim in two towns on the tour – an arena with the first and a smaller venue with the second. Sugarland will be at Vibrant Arena at The MARK in Moline, Illinois, on November 16. Bush will be with Billy Pilgrim at The Lone Buffalo by Tangled Roots Brewing Company the next day in Ottawa, Illinois. A few days before Sugarland’s December 12 show at Gas South Arena in Duluth, Georgia, Bush will host his 25th annual Kristian Bush and Friends Dec. 1-2 at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur, Georgia.
Kristian Bush’s Band’s Don’t Break Up
“People are discovering that I’m the kind of musician whose bands don’t ever break up,” Bush said. “I didn’t realize that about myself until later. And I was like, ‘Wow, this is what you do.’ I’m at this great point in my life where I can forgive myself and forgive each other. It opens up doors where literally last week somebody said to me, ‘Oh my God, I just figured out you’re the guy from Billy Pilgrim.”
Because Bush has made his career in bands and not as a solo artist, he has the flexibility to function in several spaces at once. In addition to the bands, he also discovered and produces Megan Moroney.
“It’s pretty shocking when I hear about it,” Bush said, thinking about his schedule. “I think to myself, ‘God, I must be exhausted.’ There’s something awesome about finally figuring out that it is possible to do all this. Not because I’m bored or overachieving or anything, but because the work itself is not troubled.”
Photo by Colbi Spencer
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