After an eventful year on the charts and on the road, GRAMMY-Award
winning Zac Brown Band has proven that "overnight success" can be
years in the making. New fans drawn by the irresistible hit singles, the
awe-inspiring musicianship and dynamic live shows might have thought the
Zac Brown Band emerged from nowhere. In fact, the band has paid its dues
for years and put in its time for just this moment, it may have happened
quickly, but it's definitely built to last.
Zac Brown Band's second major label studio album 'You Get What You
Give' (Atlantic/Southern Ground Artists, Inc.) was released on September
21st, 2010 and debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart. The album
features guest appearances by Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett and as Zac
explained to Associated Press, "It's a defining record...Every step of
it's done the right way and I expect people are really going to love
this record and see the depth of our musicianship, we're always growing.
Not that we've arrived at any grand finale or anything, but the progress
from this last record to this one, it's tremendous and I'm proud of it."
On the eve of the release from the famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Zac
Brown Band streamed their live show - dubbed "Best. Concert. Ever."
(Cleveland Plain Dealer) - to fans everywhere via ZacBrownBand.com
powered by Ustream. Touting nearly a half-million live views, the
concert was among the most-viewed on Ustream. The band also recently
earned four GRAMMY nominations including "Best Country Album" for 'You
Get What You Give' and five CMA Awards nominations including
"Entertainer of the Year." Previous honors and accolades include their
2010 GRAMMY win for "Best New Artist," 2010 CMA win for "Best New
Artist," 2009 Academy of Country Music Awards win for "Top New Vocal
Group" and the 2009 "Breakthrough Video of the Year" from CMT and USA
Weekend for "Chicken Fried."
No question, the past year has been dizzying for the hardworking act.
The band's first major label release, 'The Foundation' was one of
Billboard's Top 20 albums of 2009, and was the first major label debut
album in 18 years to yield five No. 1s including "Chicken Fried" and
"Free." Released on November 18, 2008 on Atlantic Records, 'The
Foundation' debuted at #17 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart and #3 on the
Top Country Albums Chart. It's now certified double platinum by the RIAA,
which Brown says, "solidifies an achievement that has been more than a
decade in the making."
"There's no way to predict how fast everything is going to come
together," adds the down-to-earth Georgian. "Or that it took 13 years to
get to the beginning of it."
In 2009 and 2010 Zac Brown Band successfully headlined the Breaking
Ground Tour. "For us to come into our own, we had to make it happen as a
headliner," notes the Dahlonega, Ga.-raised Brown. There's no question
that the road-tested band had the chops to pull it off. In addition to
bassist John Hopkins, violinist Jimmy De Martini, guitarist/organist Coy
Bowles and drummer Chris Fryar, this year the band has added
multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Clay Cook, well respected as a
musician's musician and an MVP-caliber performer on the Georgia music
scene. Cook, perhaps best known for his co-writes with Grammy-winner
(and former Lo-Fi Masters bandmate) John Mayer, rounds out the ZBB sound
on guitar, vocals, organ, mandolin and pedal steel.
"We've got a great following," Brown affirms. And while the band
strongly identifies with country music and country radio and, of course,
continues to have great success there, it's not an easily pigeonholed
crowd; while loyal country fans show up in droves, the band also appeals
to lovers of bluegrass, jam bands, reggae and seemingly everyone in
between. It's no wonder that another famous genre-hopper, Michigan's Kid
Rock, has performed with the band and given them his strong endorsement.
Zac Brown Band also shared the bill for several Dave Matthews Band dates
on their summer 2010 stadium tour, including NYC's Citi Field and will
make their Meadowlands debut as well as several stadium stops across the
country in 2011 as part of Kenny Chesney's "Goin' Coastal Tour" starring
Kenny Chesney and Zac Brown Band.
In fact, the Zac Brown Band's rehearsal space provides strong clues
that the unit puts no artificial limits on itself. While one wall sports
a whiteboard chock full of upcoming coast-to-coast tour dates, the other
is graffitied with hundreds of song titles-sharing space on a wall that
also includes a Bob Marley banner and a framed portrait of Willie Nelson
and Waylon Jennings. "Everything has to do with the song," Brown
observes. "Every song is born and wants to go its own direction. When
audiences hear a new song for the first time, if at the end of it
they're going crazy and cheering, you know you've pulled it off."
Brown launched his Southern Ground Artists, Inc. record label in 2009
and signed Atlanta-based artists Sonia Leigh, Levi Lowrey and Nic Cowan.
In addition to the music, Brown has also launched a line of steak rubs
and barbecue sauces under the Southern Ground label, and in
collaboration with photographer Jeffrey Skillings and writer/bandmate
Coy Bowles, released his first cookbook 'Southern Ground' in 2010. As
Brown notes, these projects have their roots in Zac's Place, a lakeside
restaurant he used to co-own and run. "For me it's about creating
something that's really excellent," he says. "People are going to be
blown away by how good the products are."
As if all this weren't enough, Brown is developing a charitable
foundation to run a children's camp, which recently began clearing land
for its planned site. Despite all the irons in the fire, Brown
nonetheless calls his foundation and camp plans his "life's work."
"Having the camp and giving back is important for me," he says. "I'm
very blessed to have what I have, and I know a lot of that's on credit
for what I do down the road. It's very important for me to keep that in
mind. I want to leave something behind that does some good after I'm
gone."
While Brown focuses on doing good, his audiences will continue to
focus on feeling good, as the band builds upon its grassroots following
with media exposure and gigs in larger venues, such as the recent
high-profile gig at the Bonnaroo festival that Brown calls "electric" in
both the performance and the response. (Performances on the late-night
television circuit-David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, Craig Ferguson and
Jimmy Kimmel and cover features on American Songwriter and Billboard
have only accelerated the momentum.)
And while audiences party, they'll be doing well to keep up with the
musicians onstage. "We laugh all the time," Brown notes. "You're either
sleeping or up laughing and having a good time. Or we're playing music.
It's better than I could have dreamed of."
