Zac Brown Band

All Music Guide:

Singer/songwriter/guitarist Zac Brown grew up in Dahlonega, GA, and performed as a solo artist for a number of years before founding the Zac Brown Band in Atlanta in 2004, the group's initial members also including John Hopkins (bass) and Jimmy De Martini (fiddle), with Coy Bowles (guitar, organ) and Chris Fryar (drums) joining later. The group tours extensively, and has opened for the Allman Brothers Band, Etta James, B.B. King, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Willie Nelson, Sugarland, Travis Tritt, and ZZ Top. The Zac Brown Band self-released their debut album, Home Grown, on December 16, 2005. Live from the Rock Bus Tour followed on January 3, 2007. The group's third album, The Foundation, was released in 2008. The live Pass the Jar, recorded at a performance at Atlanta's Fox Theatre, was released in 2010. Also arriving in 2010 was the studio follow-up to The Foundation, You Get What You Give, which featured new songs that the band honed on the road.

Wikipedia:

Zac Brown Band is an American country, Southern rock, bluegrass, reggae and folk band based in Atlanta, Georgia. The lineup consists of Zac Brown (lead vocals, guitar), Jimmy De Martini (fiddle, vocals), John Driskell Hopkins (bass guitar, vocals), Coy Bowles (guitar, keyboards), Chris Fryar (drums), Clay Cook (guitar, keyboards, mandolin, steel guitar, vocals), and Daniel de los Reyes (percussion). The band has toured throughout the United States, including a slot on the 2009 and 2010 Bonnaroo Music Festival. They have also recorded four studio albums, and charted eight Number One singles on the Billboard country charts: "Chicken Fried", "Toes", "Highway 20 Ride", "Free", "As She's Walking Away", "Colder Weather", "Knee Deep" and "Keep Me In Mind", in addition to the single "Whatever It Is," which peaked at number 2 on the same chart.

Early life

Zac Brown was born July 31, 1978 in Cumming, Georgia. He was raised by his mom and step-dad, a dentist on Lake Lanier. The 11th of 12 children, Brown attended Mashburn Elementary School in Cumming, Georgia, Lakeview Academy in Gainesville, Georgia, and South Forsyth High School in Cumming. He later moved to Dahlonega, Georgia, where he graduated from Lumpkin County High School. He learned to play classical guitar at the age of 6. As a teenager, he played solo gigs in local venues, performing country and pop cover songs. “Most of my brothers and sisters are older—the oldest is 21 years older than me—so a lot of them were in college or had families of their own by the time I was growing up," said Zac Brown in a interview, but that left him time to bond with his family. Because of this, he was able to learn many things as a child growing up, such as shotgun shooting and playing instruments.

College

Brown attended the University of West Georgia, where he was a member of the Zeta Kappa chapter of the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity. He was also a camp counselor at Camp Mikell in Toccoa, Ga. & Camp Glisson, a United Methodist summer camp located in Dahlonega, GA. While in college, he started a band and played dates in local restaurants with the band, and solo as well, to earn money to pay for school.

During this time, the band recorded an album to sell at their gigs, but disbanded during recording sessions. On September 11, 2001, after the terrorist attacks occurred, Brown decided that life was too short doing something that he did not enjoy, so he withdrew from school that day and decided to pursue music full-time.

Formation

In 2002, the Zac Brown Band was formed and they began traveling with a heavy tour schedule of approximately 200 dates a year. The initial Zac Brown Band lineup consisted of Brown, on acoustic guitar and lead vocals, backed by a drummer and a bass guitarist. In 2003, Brown started his own label, called Home Grown (today, it is called Southern Ground for legal reasons).

In 2004, Brown opened a music club and restaurant with his father in the Lake Oconee area of Georgia called "Zac's Place" where the fare was southern-style cooking. A developer bought the restaurant and, in turn, the Zac Brown Band bought a tour bus and began touring full-time, playing rock and country clubs as well as folk and jam band festivals. 2004 also saw the release of the Zac Brown Band's first independent album, Far from Einstyne.

It was also in 2004 when Brown added violinist/fiddler and tenor vocalist Jimmy De Martini to the Zac Brown Band, thus beginning Brown's five-year quest to develop the band's current lineup. According to an interview with De Martini, he explained that Wyatt Durette, Brown's frequent songwriting collaborator, was working as a bartender at Sidelines Sports Bar in Kennesaw, Georgia at the time, where the Zac Brown Band frequently performed. Durette suggested De Martini to Brown, who was wanting a "lead instrument" in his band, as well as a harmony singer. After doing several performances with the band at the club, Brown asked De Martini to become a full-time member, to which he gladly obliged.

In 2005, the Zac Brown Band released its second independent album, Home Grown. That same year, John Driskell Hopkins joined the band as its bass guitarist and baritone vocalist. Hopkins, who was well known in the Atlanta area as the leader of the band Brighter Shade, first met Brown in 1998 at an open mic event hosted by Hopkins and they remained friends since. Additionally, Hopkins also co-produced the Zac Brown Band's Home Grown album.

In 2006, the Zac Brown Band recorded The Foundation with producer Keith Stegall. It was also in 2006 when Coy Bowles joined the band alternating on guitar and keyboards. Bowles and Brown first met in the late 1990s when they were both students at the University of West Georgia, where Bowles was studying biology. Bowles also vividly remembers seeing Brown perform for the first time. He explains, "I walked into a restaurant and Zac was singing and playing guitar. I heard a couple tunes and turned to my buddy and said, 'That dude might have the richest and loudest voice I ever heard!' I don’t even think Zac had a microphone and you could hear him all across the bar.”

Bowles then transferred to Atlanta's Georgia State University to study music. He subsequently became involved in Atlanta's various music scenes, and eventually formed Coy Bowles and the Fellowship in 2004. Two years later, Bowles decided to reconnect with Brown. Through mutual friends, he learned that the Zac Brown Band was scheduled to perform in Atlanta one evening. Bowles and Brown spent the afternoon prior to the performance reacquainting with each other, which ended with Brown inviting Bowles to sit in with the Zac Brown Band at that night's performance, which Bowles gladly accepted. To return the favor, Bowles invited the band to attend his own gig with the Fellowship a couple of months later, which in turn resulted in Brown and his band sitting in at that gig.

This turn of events continued for eight months until Bowles concluded that it was too overwhelming to balance his time with Brown's band and his own band and other activities, thus making a difficult decision to put the Fellowship on an indefinite hiatus and become a full-time member of the Zac Brown Band, as that was what he enjoyed the most.

In 2008, the Zac Brown Band signed to Live Nation Artists Records (in association with Brown's own Home Grown label), but not before Chris Fryar became yet another addition to the band. An Alabama native, Fryar attended North Texas State University and the Mississippi University for Women and made a name for himself in the Birmingham music scene. According to Fryar, a mutual friend recommended him to Brown, who was in need of a new drummer for the band. Fryar, who in turn had just finished a stint with a previous band, subsequently auditioned and shortly afterward became the Zac Brown Band's newest member.

Commercial success

The Zac Brown Band's debut single, "Chicken Fried", was originally recorded in 2003 and included on the Home Grown album, but later re-recorded and released to country radio in 2008. This song was also recorded by The Lost Trailers, whose 2006 recording was released as a single but withdrawn after Brown decided that he wanted to release it himself. Brown also co-wrote "Simple Life", a song recorded by The Lost Trailers on their 2006 self-titled album.

In October 2008, Atlantic Records took over distribution of "Chicken Fried" after Live Nation Artists closed. The band's album The Foundation was released under Atlantic Records' newly re-established country division in association with the Home Grown/Big Picture label on November 18 of that year. "Chicken Fried" reached #1 on the country charts that same month, making them the first country band to reach #1 with a debut single since Heartland did so in 2006 with "I Loved Her First."

Inclusion of Clay Cook

In January 2009, two months after "Chicken Fried" went to #1, Atlanta native Clay Cook joined the Zac Brown Band as its multi-instrumentalist and high tenor vocalist, thus completing the band's lineup. Cook had previously collaborated with John Mayer and Shawn Mullins, and was also a member of the Marshall Tucker Band for two years prior to joining the Zac Brown Band. According to Cook, he and Brown actually both attended and graduated from high school together, but were never acquainted with each other during that period. He explains how he first met Brown:

Brown himself admits his strong desire to add Cook to the lineup, for he believed Cook's musicianship would enhance the Zac Brown Band's overall musical style:

Cook also explained his intention to leave the Marshall Tucker Band in order to join the Zac Brown Band:

With the final Zac Brown Band lineup completed, the band released its second single, "Whatever It Is," which went to #2. In October 2009, a third single, "Toes," became the band's second Number One. The album's fourth single, and third #1, was "Highway 20 Ride". "Free" was the album's fifth single and on the week of August 21, 2010, it also peaked at Number One.

Inclusion of Daniel de los Reyes

On April 25, 2012, it was announced via the Zac Brown Band's website that percussionist Daniel de los Reyes had joined the band on a permanent basis. De los Reyes had previously performed with the band as a touring musician and participated in the recording of their upcoming album Uncaged. De los Reyes has also performed with artists and groups such as Earth, Wind and Fire, Jennifer Lopez and Sting.

Awards

Zac Brown Band has earned more than 50 GRAMMY, ACM, AMA, CMA, and CMT award nominations since 2009.

They have received four nominations for the 2009 CMA Awards: New Artist of the Year, Song of the Year, Single of the Year, and Music Video of the Year for their #1 single, "Chicken Fried". That same year, they received three Grammy nominations for Best Country Album, Best Country Performance By a Duo or Group With Vocals and Best New Artist. On January 31, 2010, the band won the Grammy award for Best New Artist.

The group was also nominated in 2009 for three ACM awards, "Album of the Year", "Top Vocal Group", and was one of eight contenders for "Entertainer of the Year".

The Zac Brown Band led the nominees for the 46th annual Academy of Country Music Awards 2011, with a total of nine nominations including: Top Vocal Group of the Year, Album of the Year, Single Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Vocal Event of the Year.

Collaborations and appearances

The band is known to cover songs by their major musical influences in concert, with notable songs including Come Pick Me Up by Ryan Adams, The Devil Went Down To Georgia by Charlie Daniels, I Shall Be Released by Bob Dylan, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down by The Band, Blackbird by The Beatles, Into The Mystic by Van Morrison, One Love by Bob Marley, Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine and Can't You See by The Marshall Tucker Band. On their 2010 Live benefit album Pass the Jar, these songs were included in their setlist.

Along with recent commercial success, the band has made appearances at The Hangout Music Festival, Hullabalou Music Festival and the Bonnaroo Music Festival in 2006, 2009, and 2010 along with an opening slot for the Dave Matthews Band during their 2010 Summer Tour. Also, after several years as perennial favorites on the annual The Rock Boat theme-cruise, the Zac Brown Band has been elevated to hosting their own theme-cruise, Sailing Southern Ground, in September 2010.

In 2011, the Zac Brown Band and Blackberry Smoke did a tour of sold out concerts at venues and amphitheaters including Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, CA.

Zac Brown Band was also a headliner at the 2010 Detroit Hoedown.

Jimmy Buffett, Duane Cahill, Aaron Carman and guitar virtuoso Tony Rice join Alan Jackson as special guests on the new Zac Brown Band album, "You Get What You Give," which was released on September 21, 2010.

Zac Brown Band appeared at the Country Music Association Awards on November 10, 2010, performing As She's Walking Away.

Zac Brown Band appeared as special guests for Kings of Leon at London’s Hyde Park on June 22, 23 and at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium on June 26.

Zac Brown Band appeared at Ft. Stewart, Georgia and played a free concert for soldiers and family members on July 4, 2011 to a crowd of over 24,000.