Zac Brown Supports Disconnected Kids

Music Review - Zac Brown Band - Country-Rock Comfort Music at B. ..

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MUSICREVIEW I ZAC BROWNBAND

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lac Brown Band, led by the guitarist lac BrC1Ml, performed a genial two-hour set at Bowery Ba"oom

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By JON CARAMANICA Published: February 4,2009

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"The Foundation" (Atlantic), the recent major-label debut album by Zac Brown Band, the young country-rock outfit that played Bowery Ballroom on Tuesday night, is littered with references, allusions, mentions and nods. In its songs no compass is required for navigation; everything is exactly as it appears.

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Problem is, in its lack of obscurity Zac Brown Band's music can sound almost like

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parody, what a Northerner might write when asked to imagine what's in the mind of a Southerner. A toast to "sweet tea, pecan pie and homemade wine"? Check. Ham-handed patriotism, right down to a "first kiss on the Fourth of July." Yes, sir. And, for good

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As much as "The Foundation" is about the South, it's also about leaving it behind, a preoccupation with escape that Kenny Chesney (and, by extension, Jimmy Buffett) has long woven into country music. But Zac Brown Band - Mr. Brown, the fiddle player Jimmy De Martini, the bass player John Driskell Hopkins, the drummer Chris Fryar and the multi-instrumentalists Coy Bowles and Clay Cook - also recalls Alabama and the Oak Ridge Boys, star acts of the

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that emphasized crisp male

harmonies, a sound executed here by Mr. Brown, Mr. De Martini and Mr. Hopkins. Surprisingly, the Zac Brown Band that appeared onstage Tuesday for a genial, sometimes effective two-hour set bore only a slight resemblance to the band on that

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2/8/2009 11: 17 PM

Music Review - Zac Brown Band - Country-Rock Comfort Music at B. ..

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record. All of that album's most egregious songs were there, sure, but they were buried late in the show, buffered by plenty of newer and older ones. Where lyrics take up disproportionate space on the album, this show emphasized musicianship. Mr. Brown treated his guitar like a home gym, working through fast-picked passages with an intense look on his face, and sometimes pounding out notes as if he were punching the instrument. Mr. De Martini played with vigor, if not nuance; throughout the night a fine

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mist of dust could be seen floating off of his instrument. Because of the band's flexibility, or possibility its naivete, things unfolded in unexpected ways. The first song alone featured a drum solo, a fiddle solo and a guitar solo, a pattern that would be repeated many times throughout the night. People in the audience chatted throughout the show, taking breaks to raise their plastic cups of beer and sing along before returning to their conversations, undermining the hierarchy of performer

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and crowd. And Mr. Brown, who is brawny but gentle, was avuncular, talking between songs about vacationing in Australia and about his love for his guitar.

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But his longest speech was about "Disconnected Kids" - a bookon children with I Look 15 Years Younger Read hcMIl reduced my v.rinkles Now I look 15 years younger!

affecting original song on the album, "Highway 20 Ride," which is in the form of a note from divorced father to son, explaining why they only see each other every other weekend. And in places - a cover of Ray LaMontagne's

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stark, unnerving "Jolene," and

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"Junkyard," about an abusive household - Mr. Brown's brow was furrowed, as ifno amount of good cheer or great musical accompaniment could provide succor for the pain

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beneath. That he hurt was something of a relief.

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autism, attention deficit disorder and other conditions - and a related charitable organization that the band supports. His best vocals were at the end of the most

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