You Get What You Give

Zac Brown Band – You Get What You Give review

Zac Brown Band, a band with its own bus for touring It is no secret that any genre limits today are becoming more conventional for the artists are mainly striving for tasting new directions. Each performer comes to understanding of what style is closer to him his own way but one can always deviate from the chosen course. Zac Brown started to perform in restaurants and clubs when still a college student and he soon realized that country music was the only thing he wanted to do in life. He soon formed one of the best contemporary country bands Zac Brown Band which started its journey around the USA from the native state of Georgia. Besides Zac who writes songs and plays guitar the band includes another vocalist Jimmy De Martini playing fiddles, bassist John Driskell Hopkins, keyboardist Coy Bowles, drummer Chris Fryar and Clay Cook who plays guitar, keyboards, steel guitar and mandolin. Performing in Zac and his father’s club the musicians earned enough to buy their own bus for touring. They have released several recordings of their performances, and this year their sophomore studio effort You Get What You Give is released.

An integral and original album You Get What You Give

Some people believe country music to be too monotonous – fiddles, guitars, backing vocals, repeating topics are present practically on all country albums, and one may think that You Get What You Give is unable to surprise us with anything. Nevertheless, this album is really outstanding against the rest of them. First, Zac Brown and his team have significantly widened the stylistic frames filling the tracks with the elements of classic rock, reggae and blues. Second, the record offers some perfect vocal harmonies created by the band members’ themselves and with the participation of guest stars. Third, Zac Brown’s own vocals cannot but please with a wide range in combination with softness and emotions in it. Finally, very witty lyrics which once drew much attention to the band keeps making the listeners smile or even laugh. The strong moments of You Get What You Give, including two duets, compensate its weaker points – for example, the two lengthy song Who Knows, lasing over 10 minutes. The optimism of the opening number Let It Go passes quickly to the listener, and the duet with Jimmy Buffett Knee Deep will leave nobody indifferent due to the contagious whistling. Such compositions as No Hurry with some rock ballad elements and Quiet Your Mind in which the electric guitar meets a splendid fiddle solo are obligatory for listening. Alan Jackson joins the band on the single As She's Walking Away – it is probably the most romantic moment on the album. The song Whiskey's Gone best suits those who enjoy a tough text and a good bar story, one can even dance with it, while those fond of sad ballads will find Martin as the best choice – it is the song the line from which has served as the title for this integral and original album.

Each song is soulful, indeed

At first Zac Brown Band released albums on Zac’s own label, and though the band was formed back in 2002, its first major label single release took place only six years later. Yet one listening of the wonderful record You Get What You Give will be enough to understand that the main thing for these guys is to get together and play feel-good music, go around the country on their bus, perform because they have found a common music language. Even if you have never been especially fond of country music, you will find songs for any taste on this record because each of them is soulful, indeed. No doubt, You Get What You Give is going to be exactly the album after which the number of the genre’s fans will increase. Another thing that draws attention to the band is that Brown is never scrupulous about his vocabulary choice, once he has even been forced to change some lyrics in the single (Toes) to have it played on the radio. Due to the masterful playing of guitar, fiddles and other instruments as well as the vocal harmonies, Zac Brown Band remains one of the most successful American acts to date and hopefully its follow-up creation will not make us wait too long.