Lady A Essentials

Lady A's name suggests a group obsessed with tradition. But in fact, the trio is one of the most progressive in Nashville. "Lookin' for a Good Time," a bouncy bar song with crunching guitars, deserves to be on a mixtape with Deep Blue Something and Matchbox Twenty, while the slightly more ominous "Bartender" bumps a banjo riff off a syncopated R&B beat. On ballads like "Just a Kiss," Charles Kelley and Hillary Scott wrap their voices together and then let them fall apart as a sweeping string section scores their affair.