If “Stay,” “Settlin’” and “Want To” immediately transport you back about 20 years, this tour might be for you.
Sugarland is hitting the road this fall for the Ride or Die Tour, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the duo’s breakthrough album Enjoy the Ride.
And New England gets two shows.
Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush will play Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, Maine, on November 11, followed the next night by Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, on November 12.
The full tour includes 26 shows beginning October 1 in St. Augustine, Florida, and wrapping November 21 in Grand Prairie, Texas.
But the reason for the tour may be even more interesting than the dates.
Enjoy the Ride arrived in 2006 and helped turn Sugarland into one of the biggest acts in country music.
“Want To” became the group’s first No. 1 country hit, “Settlin’” also topped the chart, and then there was “Stay.”
That one became a career-defining song for the duo, with Nettles’ emotional vocal and the famously simple music video helping it become one of the most recognizable country ballads of its era.
The album ultimately marked the point where Sugarland went from a promising new act to country headliners.
Nettles recently called Enjoy the Ride a “turning point album,” saying the record essentially launched the group into the whirlwind of hits and touring that followed.
Sugarland’s career hasn’t exactly followed a straight line since then.
The duo went on hiatus in 2012 as Nettles and Bush pursued separate projects, reunited several years later and released Bigger in 2018. Since then, they’ve periodically toured and performed together while continuing their individual careers.
They say that may actually be part of the reason they’ve lasted.
In an interview this week, Nettles and Bush said communication, creativity and allowing each other room for projects outside Sugarland have helped keep their musical partnership working after more than two decades.
Apparently sometimes the secret to staying together is knowing when to give each other a little space.
Twenty years after Enjoy the Ride, they’re getting back in the tour bus together.
And this fall, that ride includes New England.
