ZAC BROWN BAND

ZAC BROWN BAND

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This event is expired ( Sep 22, 2013 )

The three - time GRAMMY Award winning and multi-platinum selling artists, Zac Brown Band, have announced that they will be embarking on their first multi-city Canadian tour this summer and making a stop in Edmonton at Rexall Place on September 22.

Playing upwards of 200 dates a year, more than 3,000 shows in their career and selling more than 30,000 CDs independently, Zac Brown Band has only begun its ascent. The band's aggressive touring has helped it develop a fanatical grassroots following by winning over believers one person at a time. Driven by awe-inspiring musicianship, skillful songwriting and a dynamic live show that inspires word-of-mouth buzz, Zac Brown Band is already embraced by audiences who sing along with every word.

The Foundation was released on November 18th, 2008 on Atlantic Records and debuted at #17 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart and #3 on the Top Country Albums Chart. The first single "Chicken Fried" peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Chart and maintained that position for two weeks and also debuted as the second most downloaded country single on iTunes.

"It's kind of crazy how we can go to a place where no one's heard of us before and by the time we leave people are singing the songs," bandleader Zac Brown says. "We've got a great following." It's not an easily pigeonholed crowd either; loyal country music fans, jam lovers and seemingly everyone in between are enjoying the shows. The Zac Brown Band has already landed support slots with artists such as Sugarland, ZZ Top, Travis Tritt, Etta James, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers Band, Willie Nelson and BB King.

Zac Brown gigged as a solo artist for several years with jaw-dropping flat-picking skills and an extensive catalog of originals, as well as an encyclopedic knowledge of popular songs. He formed the current incarnation of the Zac Brown Band four years ago. Members of the band include bassist John Hopkins, fiddler Jimmy De Martini and more recent additions of guitarist/organist Coy Bowles and drummer Chris Fryar. In January of 2009 multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Clay Cook joined the band; perhaps best known for his co-writes with Grammy-winner John Mayer, Cook rounds out the ZBB sound on guitar, vocals, organ, mandolin and pedal steel.

While one wall of the band's rehearsal space 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."

As important as the songs are, the band is equally serious about its ability to perform, holding the virtuosity of a bluegrass outfit like Alison Krauss & Union Station as the standard for musicianship. "Everybody in my band is able to burn his instrument down to the ground," Brown notes, matter-of-factly. "I'm blessed because the people I play with are just fantastic."

Brown's love for musical diversity is apparent from the first single, "Chicken Fried," an utterly authentic take on his Georgia-bred existence during which audiences routinely are pressed into service to sing the choruses; "Toes," which calls Jimmy Buffett to mind in its ode to beach life; and "Free," which has turned into an audience anthem during recent tour stops.

And music only scratches the surface of what Zac Brown is all about. The Dahlonega, Ga.-raised husband and father is a chef and former restaurant owner renowned for his homemade special sauces and savory Southern cooking. Additionally, he's developing a charitable foundation to run a children's camp (lending even more resonance to the album's title). 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."

But the Zac Brown Band is far from gone. And no one will be having a better time along the way. "We laugh all the time," he observes. "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." There are probably a few thousand—or hundred thousand—shows between now and the end of the line. And Brown is confident more will want to join the party.

In-depth Biography
Zac Brown is a country singer, songwriter, and bandleader, one of the brightest stars in a generation of performers set on changing the paradigm of the country music business. He's also a record producer, record label head, and philanthropist set on making the world a better place for as many people as possible. With his winning combination of country, bluegrass, reggae, and Caribbean music, he appeals to country fans and jam band hippies, and could well cross over to lovers of world music and pop. He sold over 30,000 copies of the first two self-produced albums he made for his own Southern Ground label, and "Chicken Fried," the Zac Brown Band's first single to get national distribution, went platinum with over a million downloads. His first nationally distributed album, The Foundation, sold 300,000 copies within weeks of its release in late 2008.

Brown was born in 1978 in Atlanta, GA, and grew up in Dahlonega, GA, a small town in the north Georgia mountains. He was the 11th child in a family of 12 kids, and grew up in a split family. His father worked for Coca-Cola and ran health clubs, his mom sold insurance, his stepdad was a dentist, and his stepmom was an office manager. Brown's oldest brother was 21 years his senior, so he was exposed to a wide variety of music growing up. His siblings' record collections included country, pop, bluegrass, reggae, folk, and singer/songwriter albums by Cat Stevens, James Taylor, the Eagles, Bob Marley, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings. His brother Wynn played bluegrass guitar and banjo, his mother liked old pop singers like Sinatra, and his dad played folk guitar and led the family in campfire singalongs. Brown sang as soon as he could talk, and started classical guitar lessons at age seven, which helped his fingerpicking skills when he switched to bluegrass and country in middle school. Seeing Shawn Mullins at a local coffeehouse made Brown realize he wanted to be a performer. He started playing solo gigs while he was in high school, doing covers of pop and country songs as well as his few original tunes. Attending a summer camp and working with mentally and physically challenged kids made him aware of how lucky he was. He vowed he'd open his own camp someday.

Brown went to college on a vocal scholarship and studied classical voice, but shifted his major several times to biology, then business, and finally psychology. He had a band in college and alternated between band gigs and solo restaurant dates to pay his way through school. His college band, Far from Einstyne, made an eponymous CD to sell at gigs in 1998. When the band fell apart during the recording sessions, Brown and the drummer continued on as a duo. When 9/11 occurred, Brown reevaluated his life. For years he'd been playing solo and full-band gigs at night and going to classes during the day. He decided life was too short to do things he wasn't interested in, and left school to perform full-time.

He toured for a few years in a two-piece -- acoustic guitar and drums -- as Far from Einstyne. In 2002, he put together the first Zac Brown Band, looking for players with a high level of musicianship who wanted to be equal partners in a band with a communal vibe. They played about 200 gigs their first year, a pace the band keeps up to this day. In 2003, he started his own Home Grown label -- today called Southern Ground for legal reasons -- and released Home Grown in 2003 and Live from the Rock Bus Tour in 2005. The albums have moved over 30,000 units, an impressive showing for an unsigned band. Brown runs the label, manages and books the band, and produces its albums with the help of bass player John Hopkins. In 2004, he opened a music club and restaurant with his father to serve gourmet Southern-style food. The Zac Brown Band played weekends and Brown played solo on Tuesday nights, and when he wasn't in the kitchen overseeing the staff, he was on the road with the band doing other gigs.

When a developer bought the restaurant, Brown and the band got a tour bus and hit the road full-time, playing country and rock clubs and folk and jam band festivals. With the personnel settled down to the cohesive unit of bassist Hopkins, fiddler Jimmy De Martini, guitarist/organist Coy Bowles, and drummer Chris Fryar, the band cut The Foundation with producer Keith Stegall in 2006. The songs had been road-tested and were laid down live in the studio with minimal fuss. The album came out first on Southern Ground and was picked up by Live Nation, the giant concert promoter, for their new record label in 2007. When Live Nation folded, Atlantic stepped up and released The Foundation nationally in November of 2008. "Chicken Fried," the first single, was a cross-genre platinum-selling hit. Multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Clay Cook joined the band in January of 2009.

With the album doing well, Brown expanded Southern Ground Records and signed the Sonia Leigh Band, fronted by country singer/songwriter Leigh, a cross between Joan Jett and Johnny Cash; Levi Lowrey, an Americana singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist; and Nic Cowan, a pop singer/songwriter with a Ben Harper-meets-Chris Robinson vibe. Brown toured with his labelmates in support of The Foundation during 2009, the same year in which the Zac Brown Band cut 20 tunes for their next project, and Brown bought land for his own summer camp, a venture he planned to run in cooperation with Brain Balance, an organization that works with kids with autism and ADD. He also used the recipes he developed at his restaurant for a line of barbecue sauces and other food products. In 2010, Brown and his band were awarded with the Grammy for Best New Artist. Also in 2010, the live Pass the Jar, recorded at a performance at Atlanta's Fox Theatre, was released. The studio follow-up to The Foundation, You Get What You Give, which featured new songs that the band honed on the road, appeared later that same year. ~ j. poet, Rovi

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