Lady Antebellum Reflect New Experiences on Sophomore CD

Lady Antebellum's sophomore album, 'Need You Now,' arrives in stores today (Jan. 26), and they feel they've gotten a better handle on what kind of music they want to make, especially as songwriters.

The trio -- collectively or separately -- co-wrote eight of the 11 cuts on the project, which is titled after their five-week No. 1 hit, 'Need You Now.' Making their second album was a bit different than making the first one, and it could be chalked up to more experiences, life changes and adding co-producing duties to their resume. "Maybe we've grown up a little," Dave Haywood tells The Boot. "There's just new experiences. Gosh, when we were writing those first songs, Hillary was 19, 20, and Charles and I just moved to Nashville. So, we were pretty naive at the time and still getting the whole knack of songwriting down.

"We're extremely proud of these new songs," Dave continues. "We've lived a lot, and we've seen a lot of things on the road and we've seen what people respond to. And we understood at the end of the day, we just need to create honest music. Even though we've done all these cool, big things, we just need to write songs that are true to us."

Dave's bandmate, Charles Kelley, says it could also be due to the fact that they spent a bit more time on the arrangements of songs. "Just really trying to look at every song from all sides and make the whole album an artistic statement and a journey," he explains. "And we try to take it a notch up from the first record, so hopefully, that will come through. The three of us are more proud of this record ... we really are. I love the first record, but we've gotten a lot closer now too as friends and as a band and know what we want to say and where we want to go with it."

The trio have two nominations at Sunday night's Grammy Awards -- Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals and Best Country Song for 'I Run to You.' They will also be performing on the big show, as well.

Lady A, who just finished filming the video for 'American Honey' on Monday, are also getting ready to hit the road with Tim McGraw on his Southern Voice tour, which kicks off Feb. 11 in Omaha, Neb.