Zac Brown

Country music has had its "fun quotient" upped significantly by Zac Brown Band's The Foundation. That's not to suggest that country music is a staid and stiff genre; it's anything but that, since it celebrates raunchy subjects like cheatin' hearts and tears in your beer! However, the musical style does skew towards an older, wiser demographic, and Georgia's Zac Brown Band could veritably draw a younger crowd to the country music nest, thanks to the "rawk" that the band puts forth as well as its universal lyrical angle.

The Zac Brown Band, is of course, lead by vocalist/guitarist Zac Brown, who enjoyed a tenure as a solo artist before forming his namesake band. The ZBB is known for hoofing it on the road and playing hundreds of shows annually, and it inserts plenty of "youth-centric" lyrics amidst its twangy guitars and prominent fiddles. Brown sings about all things that are on the minds of twentysomethings, such as love and where that next shot of Jager is coming from! Finally, the country genre has a light-hearted band that doesn't sacrifice any of the heft and depth of the scene.

On the strength of its violin-driven single "Chicken Fried," Zac Brown Band has linked up with Atlantic Records' country division. The song is ripe for blaring at the nearest hoe down, and it celebrates eating wings, tossing back a bear and wearing a snug pair of jeans—all the creature comforts of home, regardless of whether or not you are from the South, the Midwest or either of the coasts. "Toes," which kicks off the album, "Different Kind of Fine" and "Mary" are another set of toe-tappers that pledge allegiance to the musical identity of the South, but they don't alienate non-Southerners because Zac Brown and his band don't skim over the rock jones that so many red-blooded Americans need!

— Amy Sciarretto
12.22.08

Now that Jimmy Buffett has tried repositioning himself as a country artist by cutting duets with the likes of Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney and Clint Black, it should come as no surprise that the Parrothead influence has begun making its way into Nashville, and the first major-label effort from Zac Brown features not one but two songs ("Toes" and "Where the Boat Leaves From") devoted to the joys of getting buzzed and playing music in some seaside locale with good weather. Seeing how most of the great names of country's formative era rarely if ever sang about vacationing (beyond spending the odd night in a honky-tonk), this is an interesting and somewhat puzzling development, though Brown and his band have embraced a canny range of marketable influences on The Foundation. "Chicken Fried" is a radio-friendly homage to country-as-lifestyle (including chicken fried steak, cold beer and supporting the troops), "It's Not OK" is a less-than-good-natured rant against some panhandler that will warm the hearts of Toby Keith fans, the "lite-funk with fiddle" groove of "Different Kind of Groove" suggests these guys have been listening to a lot of Dave Matthews, and "Highway 20 Ride" and "Free" show the influence of the more sentimental branches of the Texas Singer-Songwriter tradition (through the results are more Pat Green than Robert Earl Keen). Brown has a fine voice and he and his band are solid pickers who've polished these songs to a fine semi-gloss after a few thousand nights on the road, but there's a calculated air of "something for everyone" about The Foundation that doesn't sound eclectic so much as an effort to chase down as many demographics as possible. Brown and his partners are determined to sing something you're going to like, but The Foundation would be a bit more satisfying if more of it came from the heart instead of some sort of strategy session. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide