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Andy Sullivan: Are They Still A Thing?

Country fans will remember Sugarland.  They were comprised of Jennifer Nettles, Kristian Bush and, in their original incarnation, Kristen Hall.  Hall decided to leave the group after they established stardom, leaving the trio a duo.  They were rolling along quite nicely with hit after hit.  Then, the Indiana State Fair incident occurred.  Without going into specifics (because we’ve all heard the story), the band pretty much ceased to exist after that show.  Both members were pretty torn up about the incident, obviously. I believe lawsuits were involved.  Jennifer went off to do her own thing.  All the while, we heard the common refrain of a band who’s on the verge of a break-up, “Sugarland is NOT breaking up.  We’re still a band”, etc… Sure, guys.  That’s unfortunate.  Much like butter, they were on a roll.
A favorite group of mine, Los Lonely Boys, are actually still touring and making music.  You wouldn’t know it, though.  The only commercial success they had was with their debut single “Heaven” in 2003.  I quickly became a fan.  The last CD of theirs I got was called 1969.  On that album, as you might guess, they covered their favorite songs, songs that inspired them, from the year 1969.  The album was great. I listened to it a lot.  They released Rockpongo in 2011.  That album got 2 stars from Rolling Stone.  Where are they now? They cancelled a June Jazz festival appearance because of the passing of their mother.  So, they are still together (they ARE brothers, after all) and touring.  I began to wonder after their critical success went cold.  Just goes to show that you don’t have to be “big time” to have a good career. 
Monday, King Harvest song “Dancing in the Moonlight” came on my iPod while I was running.  That’s one of my favorite ‘70’s songs.  I was listening to my Blacklist playlist (that song was played on that show).  I tweeted that I might have to try that song on guitar sometime.  King Harvest replied to me! They said they want the link if I tried the song.  Now I’m going to have to try it, probably.  That whole scenario answered my question “is King Harvest still a thing” with a resounding yes!
For my final “are they still a thing”, let’s go with country act Diamond Rio.  I know for a fact they’re still a thing.  They hit it big in the ‘90’s on country radio with songs like “Meet In The Middle”, “Norma Jean Riley”-sidebar, that’s my grandmother’s maiden name(the song isn’t about her), and later with songs like “Completely”.  The latter is what I call the Contemporary Years of the band.  The guys are still together, still on tour.  They’re in California and Vegas the next few months.  They certainly have a big enough catalog, even if they never released any new music. 
There are many groups that, even though you may not constantly hear them on the radio, are still together.  To answer the question “Are they still a thing”? The answer to most of these cases is a resounding yes.

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