July 19, 2024

Music Friday: Fed-Up Girlfriend Demands Shiny Ring in ‘Little White Church’

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fun songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Karen Fairchild of Little Big Town demands an engagement ring and a walk down the aisle in the high-energy 2010 country hit, “Little White Church.”

Fairchild portrays a young woman who is fed up with her boyfriend — a “charming devil” with a “silver tongue.” He’s been skirting a marriage commitment for far too long, and now Fairchild needs to lay down the law. From here forward, he won’t be riding this “gravy train” until he buys her a shiny ring and takes her down to the little white church.

She sings, “You’ve been singing that same old song / Far too long, far too long / Say you’ll buy me a shiny ring / But your words don’t mean a thing.”

Co-written by Little Big Town band members Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Jimi Westbrook and Phillip Sweet, along with Nashville-based songwriter Wayne Kirkpatric, “Little White Church” was inspired by a phrase jotted down in Fairchild’s notebook.

Sweet told songfacts.com that a writing session turned into an avalanche of creativity when they started working on “Little White Church.”

“And it came together pretty fast,” Sweet said. “Karen had the idea written in her book… because you drive around [Franklin] Tennessee and you see all these beautiful, quaint, picturesque, little white churches all over the place.”

Fairchild wanted the song to incorporate a bluegrass-inspired musical form called “call and response,” which can be heard in the rousing “take me down, take me down” chorus.

“It sounds and feels like we had fun, because we did,” Sweet said.

“Little White Church” was the lead single from Little Big Town’s album The Reason Why. The song climbed to #6 on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and had crossover success on the US Billboard Hot 100, topping out at #59.

Founded in 1998 in Homewood, AL, Little Big Town has earned three Grammy Awards out of 15 nominations. The group is credited with 24 singles on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts, including two #1s and six others in the Top 10.

Little Big Town is on the road through mid-December with stops in the US, UK, Switzerland and Scotland.

Check out the group’s performance of “Little White Church” live at CMT’s Summer Camp in 2022. The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Little White Church”
Written by Jimi Westbrook, Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Phillip Sweet and Wayne Kirkpatrick. Performed by Little Big Town.

You’ve been singing that same old song
Far too long, far too long
Say you’ll buy me a shiny ring
But your words don’t mean a thing
No more calling me baby
No more loving like crazy

Till you take me down (take me down)
You better take me down (take me down)
Take me down to the little white church
Take me down (take me down) take me down (take me down)
Take me down to the little white church
Take me down

You can’t ride this gravy train
Anymore, anyway
There’s a price for keeping me
Well, I ain’t cheap and I ain’t free
No more calling me baby
No more loving like crazy

Come on

Charming devil, silver tongue
Had your fun, but now you’re done
Mama warned me ’bout your game
She don’t like you anyway

No more calling me baby
No more lovin’ like crazy
No more chicken and gravy
Ain’t gonna have your baby

Till you take me down (take me down)
You better take me down (take me down)
Take me down to the little white church
Take me down (take me down)
You better take me down (take me down)
Take me down to the little white church
Take me down to the little white church (take me down)
Take me down (take me down to the little white church)
Take me down (take me down)
You better take me down (you better take me down)
Take me down to the little white church
Take me down (take me down)
Take me down to the little white church
Take me down (take me down)
You better take me down (take me down)
Take me down to the little white church
Take me down to the little white church, take me down to the little white church