 Best Sellers | | |  | |  | | | The Foundation
(Audio CD)
by Zac Brown Band | | | | | SKU:
075678969485 | | In Stock | | Availability:
Usually ships in 1 business days | | | | | | Playing upwards of 200 dates a year, more than 2,500 shows in their career and selling more than 20,000 CDs independently, Zac Brown Band has only begun its ascent. The band's aggressive touring has helped it develop a fanatical grassroots following by winning over believers one person at a time. Driven by awe-inspiring musicianship, skillful songwriting and a dynamic live show that inspires word-of-mouth buzz, Zac Brown Band is already embraced by audiences who sing along with every word. | | | |
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| | Product Details | | Audio CD Release Date: | November 18, 2008 | | Studio: | Atlantic | | Number Of Discs: | 1 | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 147 reviews |
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| | Track Listing | | 1. | Toes | | 2. | Whatever It Is | | 3. | Where The Boat Leaves From | | 4. | Violin Intro To Free | | 5. | Free | | 6. | Chicken Fried | | 7. | Mary | | 8. | Different Kind Of Fine | | 9. | Highway 20 Ride | | 10. | It's Not Ok | | 11. | Jolene | | 12. | Sic 'Em On A Chicken | |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review:
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1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Mood lifting!!! Aug 13, 2010
I haven't tired of this CD since I purchased over a month ago. We listened to it going and coming on a recent trip to Florida. It sounds silly but I play it in my head when I'm not listening to it on my player. Lifst my mood and makes for a happy day. Love Zac Brown Band.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Great Music Aug 05, 2010
I reallyenjoy this CD. It is made up almost entirely of hits. Great choice of songs.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
This album is, in a word, GREAT! Aug 02, 2010
Easily one of the best albums I've purchased recently, The Zac Brown Band really has a lot to offer. A solid mix of Southern Rock sentiment, Hillbilly chaos and Beachtastic swagger (think Jimmy Buffett meets Lynyrd Skynyrd meets The Avett Brothers), `The Foundation' lays quite the foundation for much more musical enjoyment.
Seriously; let the good times roll!
The beach vibe kicks off the album with `Toes', a song that starts with the words "got my toes in the water, (rear end) in the sand, not a worry in the world a cold beer in my hand" and instantly I'm transported to Mexico and I'm happy. Everything about this `Margaritaville' inspired jingle is perfection, and really lets you know what this band is all about. This is happy music, music designed to entertain and console you. Zac Brown and his band continue to layer these tracks with smooth influence, calling to mind Jack Johnson on songs like `Different Kind of Fine', which slinks all over the listener with slick confidence and catchy rhythmus. While some of the songs seem to play into one another (the vibe of both `Different Kind of Fine' and `Where the Boat Leaves From' are very similar), it is a welcomed similarity because it bleeds with such earnest serenity. `Where the Boat Leaves From' is stunningly great, pulling you in with every bounce in the rhythm.
The Southern Rock side of the band is equally compelling, maybe even more so. `Free' is beautifully constructed to call to mind that rustic and raw appeal of the genre. Zac Brown has vocals so soft and smooth they defy his burly physique, and his voice works wonders all over this album. `Highway 20 Ride' can easily bring a grown man to his knees and induce countless tears (the video made me bawl, and the song itself brought my Uncle to tears just this past weekend...so moving). It is such an honest song about the love a father has for a child, despite difficulties.
`Whatever It Is' is probably my favorite track here. The lyrics are simple yet so meaningful, and the love shown in each word uttered shows itself in the ease with which the song sits on the ears (despite the fact that "you got whatever it is" is a mouthful considering the song structure).
It's beautiful.
And then you have the hillbilly fun of songs like `Chicken Fried' that just sink right into their country roots without any hesitation. Barnyard fun is what I call it, and fun certainly describes these tracks. `It's Not Ok' is also a load of fun, especially when you factor in the spoken word casualty of the verse structure, and that closing track (`Sic' em On a Chicken') is just brilliant. `Mary' is really the only song here that I don't entirely care for. It just seems rather generic, despite some nice moments.
I do want to mention that `Jolene' is simply genius. The original song (sung by one of my favorite artists, Ray Lamontagne) is beautiful and so signature to Ray's style. What I love so much about what Zac does here is that he completely makes the song his own. While some may balk and say `you can't make the song unrecognizable', for me that only counts if you are in a competition relying on votes, not when you are constructing your own album. They reconstructed the song to feel like a Zac Brown Band song, and it fits their album perfectly. It is a different song altogether, yet it maintains the same emotional connection as the original.
Bravo!
So, as far as recommendations are concerned...HECK TO THE YES I RECOMMEND THIS ALBUM! Really, this is a solid album that represents the band well and only gets me more and more excited for more and more music. This was a great find and one you can't go wrong with.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
The Zac Brown band is for real. Jul 09, 2010
An outstanding accomplishment for this relatively new group. This is one you can hear over and over without becoming tired of the sound.
1 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Commercial Radio-Friendly Sound with Vapid Lyrics Jul 03, 2010
I can't say now whether I first heard lead single "Chicken Fried" on the radio or as part of the ubiquitous free digital samplers I've found every year since buying an iPod. I thought the sound of the song was pleasant enough, but the lyrics just didn't do it for me. It seemed to be a very generic amalgamation of every country music stereotype, from "cold beer on Friday night" to "jeans that fit just right." This was a song meant to play over an Applebee's commercial. Or Levi's. Or both. Then came the final verse of the song, in which we're implored to give thanks to the soldiers who ensure that "we don't have to sacrifice all the things we love/like chicken fried..." Because apparently, there's a terrorist organization determined to take away our chicken supply.
Don't misunderstand me. I'm all for giving a shout-out to our brave men and women in uniform. Give them an entire song, though. Don't shoehorn them in like that at the end of the song for the cheap audience reaction. Most insulting of all on the cut is the militant drum that introduces the first line of that verse. It's there as an auditory cue that the drunken revelers need to pay attention to something serious for a moment, like when you're at a party and the drunkest guy there is adamant about the toast he's about to give to Woody Woodpecker. I figured as long as "Chicken Fried" was one of the weaker cuts on the album, I might like this debut release.
I can tell you, I was greatly disappointed. Zac Brown Band's musicianship is impressive; they sound like a group of seasoned pros, used to churning out commercial radio hits on a daily basis. The production leaves them feeling sterile, though, hitting each note just right without the kind of vim and verve that one might expect from a band whose leader sports the bushy beard seen in the album art. As instrumental tracks, any of these songs is custom made for today's country radio. It's polished enough for the soccer mom set and features enough acoustic instruments to satisfy fans of mandolin and such. (You know, the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" crowd.)
To win over the young male demographic, Zac Brown Band relies on what can charitably be described as vapid and even asinine lyrics. Album opening "Toes" features an oft-repeated chorus that makes sure you know that the guy in the song has his "ass in a chair" on the beach, getting drunk. And to make sure they've got your attention, he smokes "a big fat one" in one modified line of the song. This is country music for the Family Guy crowd, apparently, which might explain the most offensive song of the collection, the closing track "Sic 'Em on a Chicken."
It has the structure of a preschool record, but it's about having a dog that is kept for the sake of slaying chickens in the yard. A particularly boisterous rooster rebels, nearly taking the eye of a kid and is in turn slain by the song's narrators and eaten. It never becomes an outright mockery of violence, inviting one to dismiss it as sheer comedy. Rather, its straightforward presentation seems to suggest that Zac Brown Band simply thought a song about killing chickens for the sake of killing chickens was not just amusing, but somehow clever.
At the end of the album, I was left exactly where I was when I had finished hearing "Chicken Fried" the first time: wondering just what it is that so many fans see in this album and band. But then I remember that they're too busy expressing gratitude that soldiers give their lives so they don't have to give up chicken.
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