‘Catch of the Day’ – Jennifer Nettles – “Unlove You” [AUDIO]

Today's spotlight falls on one half of the most successful duos of the first decade of this century. A group that 11 top-10 hits and 5 #1's from 2004 to 2010, and then went on hiatus in 2011 after a tragedy prior to one of their concerts.

Jennifer Nettles was born and raised in Douglas, GA, a little town about 200 miles southeast of Atlanta. She began performing at school and at her church, progressing to local community theater while still in high school. She met Cory Jones while a student at Agnes Scott College in Decatur Georgia, and the duo formed the group Soul Miner's Daughter. Together, they released two albums The Sacred and The Profane (1996) and Hallelujah (1998). The band performed at Lilith Fair in 1999.

Soul Miner's Daughter split in 1999, and Nettles soon formed the Jennifer Nettles Band. The group released three studio albums and two live projects and was the winner of "The Big Deal $100,000 Music Search" presented by Mars Music. They beat out more than 2000 other unsigned bands for the title.

By 2003, Nettles had moved to Nashville, trying to sell songs on Music Row. That is where she met two other struggling songwriters, Kristian Bush and Kristen Hall. After writing a few songs together, they decided to record their own compositions, forming the group Sugarland. Hall left the group unexpectedly in 2005. According to Bush and Nettles it was to concentrate on her writing, according to Hall she was forced out of the group. A law suit followed and was eventually settled out of court.

On August 13, 2011, Sugarland was schedule to play an outdoor stage at the Indiana State Fair. Just prior to Bush and Nettles taking the stage, high winds caused the stage to collapse, killing seven people and injuring over forty-five. Sugarland held a free benefit concert in honor of the victims of the stage collapse on October 28, 2011. On November 23, 2011 it was announced that 44 lawsuits had been brought against Sugarland and a handful of organizations involved with the show, citing an unspecified damage amount for compensation. The suits were filed by family and friends of those killed in the stage collapse. in 2014, the duo, along with the concert promoter Live Nation and 16 other defendants settled claims stemming from the incident in the amount of $39 million.

In 2011 the group announced a hiatus, taking time off to "chill and relax and sleep in our own beds and contemplate how we want to approach what’s next." In the meantime, Nettles has concentrated on acting, appearing on Broadway in the musical Chicago, and also appearing in the TV movie Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors, playing Parton's mother Avie. Nettles also released a solo album, 2014's That Girl, which produced three singles; only the title track cracked the top-40, peaking at #37. She soon parted ways with her record company, Mercury Nashville, signing with Big Machine Records in 2015.

Nettles is currently in the studio working on her second solo album, the first for Big Machine Records. Today we shine the spotlight on the lead single from the project, which is yet to have a title. Jennifer Nettles and "Unlove You" is today's Catch of the Day, new music you haven't heard, but you'll want to hear it again.