Before the new Zac Brown Band album was released on April 28, the group had already sent a strong signal for why it was named “Jekyll + Hyde.”
The singles sent to radio in advance of the album were as close to being polar opposites stylistically as any group could get.
On one hand, there was “Homegrown,” a chunky, mid-tempo country tune with a hearty melody and accents of fiddle and banjo that add to its down-home feel.
The other advance single, “Heavy is the Head,” is a whole different story. With its rumbling bass line, hard beat and stinging guitar lines setting the tone and a guest vocal from Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, it is the hardest-rocking song the group has released.
What might be most surprising, according to guitarist/keyboardist Clay Cook, is that the two songs don’t quite represent just how wide-ranging “Jekyll + Hyde” is.
“Let me just say this,” Cook said. “I think if you consider the extremes being ‘Homegrown’ to ‘Heavy is the Head,’ I kind of feel like ‘Homegrown’ is right in the middle. So there’s the new spectrum for you. You thought ‘Homegrown’ was all the way to the left, it’s right in the middle. ‘Heavy is the Head’ is all the way to the right. I think there’s more spectrum than people are going to imagine.”
The Zac Brown Band may be pushing the envelope further than ever on “Jekyll + Hyde,” but each of the group’s six albums has had rock-leaning songs to go with the country tunes.
But “Heavy is the Head” is the first Zac Brown Band song to be pitched to the hard-rock-oriented, mainstream rock radio format. The song has connected, climbing to number three on that chart.
As for “Homegrown,” that song stood out early in the process of making “Jekyll + Hyde.”
“It’s definitely the statement song,” Cook said. “I think we knew that going in, even before we recorded it. And then after we recorded it, we were like ‘Wow, this is something. This is a really good recording.’ Then we heard the mix of it and we were like ‘Yup, that will be the first single no matter what.’ And we rushed it to country radio. Actually, the thing was on the radio before we were even halfway done making this record.”
The band’s instincts were right on target. “Homegrown” flew up the country charts, and only Sam Hunt’s blockbuster hit “Take Your Time” has (so far) kept the song out of the top slot.
Obviously, it’s unusual for any act to have hit separate hit songs at country and rock radio. But the Zac Brown Band has made a habit out of doing things unconventionally.
Instead of signing to a major Nashville label, singer/guitarist Brown followed a do-it-yourself path when he formed the Zac Brown Band in 2002. He started his own record label, Home Grown Records (later renamed Southern Ground Records) and in 2004 released the group’s first album, “Far from Einstyne.
A turning point came before the release of the group’s third album, 2008’s “The Foundation,” when the newly restarted country division of Atlantic Records worked with Brown’s own label to pick up the project. “Chicken Fried” became the group’s first number one single.
There have been eight more number one country singles since then, as well as a 2013 Grammy for Best Country Album for “Uncaged.”
What has kept the Zac Brown Band — which also includes fiddler player/tenor vocalist Jimmy De Martini, multi-instrumentalist/baritone vocalist John Driskell Hopkins, guitarist/keyboardist Coy Bowles, drummer Chris Fryar, percussionist Daniel de los Reyes, Cook and bassist Matt Mangano — consistently on the charts, in Cook’s view, is first of all, the quality of the music.
“Songs are what connect to the people,” he said. “Whether they can relate to it or they can imagine it or they can love what the person is saying, it all comes down to the songs. It just always has and it always will.”
Another key, Cook said, has been the band’s spirited and honest live shows.
“We’re real guys,” Cook said. “We’re not trying to do things for an image. We’re musicians through and through. Almost everything we do is because we want to make music better.”
Fans new and old will get to enjoy the Zac Brown Band live experience all summer as the group returns to the road. Cook said the group is starting the tour with a bit of a risky move by playing the entire “Jekyll + Hyde” album — even though the record is brand new.
“We’re trying to build such an entertaining show that hopefully it won’t matter too much if you don’t know those particular songs,” Cook said.
“We could actually do a greatest hits show,” he said. “I think some of the people want to see that, but I think the reason people like us is we stretch out and do non-conventional things. We’re musicians. We’re not a jukebox up there on stage.”
