People say Little Big Town sounds like a country version of Fleetwood Mac, and the band doesn't mind that at all. In fact, their hit Boondocks is so structurally similar to The Chain it could be an outtake from Rumours.

The four band members - Jimi Westbrook, Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Roads Schlapman and Phillip Sweet - are huge fans of the harmonies of Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, CSN and others who came before. The group has been around for a decade but just in recent years has been propelled to stardom, including a Grammy nomination with Sugarland (which they lost to Robert Plant/Alison Krauss) for a remake of Life in a Northern Town .

After touring the country as an opening act, the band brings its first headlining tour on its third album, A Place to Land, to the Grizzly Rose tonight. Westbrook spoke by phone from a tour stop in Montgomery, Ala.

How's it going, finally being the headliner?

We've been opening for people for a while. You get in that mode where you just go out and play 45 minutes and you're done. We're excited about sitting down and getting to play some longer sets and some things we haven't played in a long time.

And we've worked up new stuff that we've never played before. . . . One song, Fury, off of A Place to Land, is a lot of fun to play. It's got great energy. We also worked up a ballad from The Road to Here that we'd never played before called Lost.

There's a section of the show where we do an acoustic set in the middle. It's a lot of fun, a little more intimate and broken down. That's probably my favorite moment in the show right now, Lost. We've wanted to do that for a long time.

Is it hard to work up songs you've not played? The harmonies are so intricate.

That was something else . . . You get in there and you write the song and you cut it. We hadn't messed with that since then. It was like learning a brand-new song. That one in particular, the harmonies are so intricate we had to go back and study it - "What did we do?" The parts kinda interweave and cross each other. A little bit frustrating in the beginning, but we finally got hold of what we'd done in the studio.

All four members trade off lead vocals and harmonies. How is that decided in the studio?

It's not a set pattern or anything. It depends on the song. A lot of times during the writing process, there'll be a voice that gravitates toward the lead. Sometimes that sticks, sometimes we try it differently.

When we're writing a song there's a home for it - a home key that feels right, that feels like the best delivery. That's what we do with the voices as well, just which paints the picture the best.

How did the Sugarland collaboration come about?

They're good friends of ours and have been for several years. When we got out on the road with them they wanted to do a song together on the show. We were already doing one, Pour Some Sugar on Me, which the crowd always enjoys.

We were all sitting around talking one day and Kristian (Bush, of Sugarland) says, "We should do another song, one with big, huge harmonies. What about that old song, Life in a Northern Town, Dream Academy?" We all looked at him puzzled because I don't think many people know that song by its name. "You know, 'A hey a ma ma ma . . . ' " It's got those big epic vocals.

We sat in the dressing room at one of the arenas and worked it up. We started doing it a couple of nights later and the crowd started responding. . . . We did a little CMT video and they began playing it and it became a No. 1 video. Radio stations took the audio from it and started playing it. It was this big organic movement.

The next thing we know we have a Grammy nomination. It's just crazy. . . . that's the beauty of all that, it did happen organically.

Fleetwood Mac was a huge influence for you. What was it like doing CMT Crossroads with Lindsey Buckingham?

Oh, man. That is one of those things that will forever be one of the great experiences I've ever had. It's gonna sound over the top, but it really was a magical night.

We got to spend a couple of days with him beforehand. . . . it was that dance in the beginning of trying to get to know each other. . . . All of a sudden there was this connection when we sat down and started talking music and playing through his stuff.

We were all just sitting there in the studio where we create our music and singing these songs we love so much. It was unbelievable, surreal. We have a lot of that on tape. We got to the show the next night and it just all clicked. That show was literally over in 50 minutes.

Sometimes you go back and redo things, but there was such an energy . . . that we didn't feel like we needed to go back and do anything. We just went with it. It went by so fast, we looked at each other like, "Oh no, it's over." But it was really incredible.

Brownm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2674

Little Big Town

* When and where: 10 p.m. today, Grizzly Rose

* Cost: $20

* Information: 303-930-8497 or ticketmaster.com

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