Zac Brown Band - From The Road Vol. 1: Covers - Review
- by Peter Källman
- in Reviews
The Zac Brown Band is known for its blend of country, rock, and southern influences. With this release, they are showing how they have been paying homage to a broad range of popular songs and infusing some of their country-rock sound into each one. As the title suggests, the songs on this album were recorded during live shows.
The band has been performing hundreds of live shows featuring originals but also some covers over the past years. The earliest cover on this record is a rendition of “Neon” by John Mayer, featuring John Mayer, dating back to 09.22.2012, at the Southern Ground Music and Food Festival, Nashville, TN. Other legendary artists featuring on this album include Darrell Scott, Steven Tyler, and Marcus King. "Enter Sandman," "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Use Somebody," and "Eleanor Rigby" are some of the other songs covered on the album. In a conversation with “pressconnects,” when asked about why they play covers, the members of Zac Brown Band are quoted saying the following:
Matt Mangano (bass): They’re usually songs that we love to play or that are fun to play for us. And then we all sort of came up playing in bars, separately and then together, and those were the songs that we played, so it’s sort of a tip of the hat to where we came from and to those artists who sort of influenced us. And it can be a lot of fun.
Clay Cook (guitar, mandolin, steel guitar, vocals, keyboard): It also keeps us from getting bored.
Does that sound like reason enough to release a full-length cover album to be consumed on all streaming sites? To me, it does! Plus, the album sounds great!
The Zac Brown Band consists of 8 core members. The fact that they have kept more or less the same roster since their formation in 2002 really allows them to bring all their abilities into these covers that they make. A very complex song such as "Bohemian Rhapsody" is only able to be covered and keep the identifying, high-quality sound of the group because they have so many well-coordinated core members.
Overall, I salute that an extremely prominent and famous band releases tidbits like this for the superfans to enjoy. It might not be the hypercommercial country bops that they are most known for releasing, but it definitely adds a bit of extra flair to their discography. Also, one of the interesting things is that if you look into the dates where the different covers were recorded, you can also listen for how not only the band's internal sonics have changed over time but how the recorded quality of live music has changed. It is very rare to see covers that actually keep similar levels of energy as the originals. Now energy does not have to do as much with genre or particular choice of instruments but rather the overall feeling that is being conveyed. I think Zac Brown Band keeps it up very well, sometimes even exceeding the punch of the original song with extremely intense choruses lifted by their country twang. My favorite cover on the record would have to be "Neon." Lovely extended version.
Read our interview with Zac Brown at C2C, London in March.
