Country megastars Zac Brown Band performed their Owl Tour at Blossom Music Center last night (Friday, June 14). The seats in the pavilion hardly seemed necessary, as the reserved seat holders spent the night standing in unison with most of the 13,000+ patrons on the lawn for this sold-out show, for what seemed like the duration of the 2.5 hours + set. (Not including a 20-minute intermission) Brown and company wowed the crowd with crowd-pleasing hits, new material from his yet-to-be-released album (rumored for a 2019 release) and, as always, covered some great country and cross-genre hits. Hell, ZBB even debuted a brand new song, “The Woods,” a never-before-performed tune.
Zac Brown has put together an amazing 8-piece band with great musicians that communicate extremely well, including studs like Jimmy De Martini, who can play great fiddle, violin AND lead guitar (all adding terrific depth to the already deep band). Several of the musicians onstage with Brown provide backing harmonies that compliment Zac flawlessly.
The Atlanta natives not only have an extensive repertoire of original music, but performed covers ranging from James Taylor to Rage Against the Machine! Few (dare I say none?) other country acts are brave enough to tackle tunes so far out of their comfort zone.
Just before the intermission ZBB performed three acoustic songs. One of those songs was selected by a young guest spinning a James Taylor Wheel (which is exactly what you think it is!). The wheel stopped at “You’ve Got a Friend.” So…they played it!
Other highlights on the night included Zac Brown Band’s (arguably) biggest hit, “Chicken Fried,” to close out the second set (pre-encore), covers of Charlie Daniels Band’s “Devil Went Down to Georgia,” and Rage Against the Machine’s “Bulls on Parade,” and the aforementioned special debut of “The Woods.”
Brown supports the charity Camp Southern Ground, a camp for children ages 7 to 17. This camp helps children of all backgrounds with learning and attention disabilities as well as social or emotional challenges. Brown announced the band donates three dollars per ticket sold to this worthy cause.
Zac Brown Band has made an effort to stop at Blossom for three consecutive summers and, hopefully, 2020 will bring the streak to four, giving fans a chance to come back and see one of the few country bands who mix things up every night, as well as welcome newcomers who have learned their lesson about snoozing on tickets.
Opening for ZBB was Drake White. White also has excellent musicians that played’s a high energy 10 song set to warm the sold-out crowd. White’s band is very active on stage with a touch of ZZ Top style with guitarists lining up and moving in sync.
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