Little Big Town covers some tracks

Don't tell Little Big Town, but the country band's got it backward.

Most groups start out doing covers, working in a little original material. But LBT -- of "Boondocks" fame -- has made a habit lately of covering other people's songs. And they seem just fine with that, particularly when they get to cover the song with the original artist.

The band -- Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Jimi Westbrook and Phillip Sweet -- joined other country stars on Lionel Richie's new album, "Tuskegee," which reworks his hits as country duets. According to LBT's website, when they were approached about the record, Schlapman said, "I was like, 'Oh yeah, heck yeah, we will! I'll go beat them into submission if I need to!' " LBT brings its four-part harmonies to "Deep River Woman," which Richie recorded in 1987 with another country quartet, Alabama.

Before the Richie collaboration, the band toyed with the idea of countrifying current pop songs and posting them on YouTube for fun. They started with Bruno Mars' "Grenade" and that evolved into "Scattered, Smothered and Covered," or what Fairchild calls "our little silly song series." LBT has covered Lady Gaga's "Born This Way," Jesse J's "Price Tag" (rapping and all), Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" and Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger," their cover of which has more than 400,000 YouTube views.

For fans afraid that LBT has devolved into a cover band, fear not: They're working on a new album.