Ravinia 2019, Issue 2, Week 4

try to be respectful of that experience,” Bush says. “You can listen to our music [anywhere], but being at our show adds a whole new layer, a multi-dimensional layer that you just can’t get elsewhere. I mean, it’s a sensory-wide experience and yes, it has a spiritual element. It’s just a product of who Jennifer and I are as a team. It’s an unintended product of what we are together.” During their stop at Ravinia in 2018, Sugarland created that spiritual experience with thought-provoking performances, including their cover of the Patty Griffin anthem “Tony.” “A Sugarland performance can lay out like a comfortable blanket, but then, if we do things right, we can also have you walking out of here asking questions of yourself that you don’t know the answers to,” says Bush. “But you soon will. It will all make sense if you let the music in and let the music work through you.” When it comes right down to it, it’s all about communi- cation between a band and their fans, a communication that sometimes goes sight unseen at a place like Ravinia. “Ravinia is different in the way that there is a whole other world happening on the lawn,” chuckles Bush. “You are not only communicating with the people that are in front of you, but also to those [thousands more] that you can’t see. But we are really there [with them].” “I’ll never forget the excitement Sugarland generated last year with its Ravinia debut. Of course, Jennifer Nettles has one of the all-time great voices, no matter the genre, and the atmosphere in the park was electric. I knew that I wanted to book them again right away, but I didn’t know that, at the same time, the band was falling in love with Ravinia and also wanted to return,” says Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman, who programs all of the festival’s concerts. “We’re thrilled to welcome them back in a summer featuring two more country headliners, Little Big Town and Lady Antebellum [in its festival debut]. We’re looking forward to that same level of magic amalgamation between artist and venue.” But if anyone knows how to play to their crowd, it’s Sugarland. “We are a band that tends to expand to fit the venue we are playing, whether that venue is small or large,” says Bush. “Whether we are in a stadium or in a 100 seat club, we have complete confidence in the show that we can put on. We ex- pand and contract based on the experience.” Sort of like a beating heart. “Sugarland has always been like a beating heart,” Bush explains. “It doesn’t work if you don’t let it rest. You need to let it contract and expand, and that’s exactly what we have let it do throughout our career.” And yes, Bush knows that heart very well. He is a father, after all. “It’s a very tough time to be a father,” says the father of two. “Having that sort of responsibility in the current culture is a challenge when its resting on your shoulders. Fathers have to start owning their parenting. They need to start being responsi- ble for parenting the daughters out there and supporting them and be an example to them and have conversations with them. When you make mistakes, you have to own them. Parenting teenagers is like a whole new level of a video game.” He lets out a sigh. “I have a 14-year-old daughter,” he says matter-of-factly. “We often find ourselves in a precarious place. Her heart sometimes goes dark and everything is a standoff. You just have to listen to them, even if they are not speaking.” Just like Sugarland starts listening, finding the pulse, every time they get onstage. Tricia Despres is a Chicago-area freelance entertainment writer whose work has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times , Taste of Country , and a number of local, regional, and national publications. Follow her on Twitter at @CHIWriter. SHERVIN LAINEZ 34 RAVINIA MAGAZINE | JUNE 17 – JUNE 30, 2019