Zac Brown Band grows on southern values

In the music world, there are dozens of posers who seem to have a genuine love of music but are actually more money hungry than Brooks Brothers’ suit wearing execs.

Perhaps its music lovers’ search for the genuine musical article that has led them to The Zac Brown Band, making them one of the hottest new acts out there.

“This is just a whole lot of hard work paying off,” said Brown just before his band won this year’s Best New Vocal Group honors at the 44th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards. “We still got our heads down, working hard and doing what we always do.”

In Zac Brown terms, that means writing original music — which Brown started doing as a 17-year old in Dahlonega, Ga. — and playing it for friends. It wasn’t long after Zac started writing music the he and his father opened a restaurant near their home and he started playing music while good country cooking was served.

It might seem those days are gone forever. After all, Brown plays 200 gigs a year now and his album “The Foundation” debuted at No. 17 on the Billboard and No. 3 on Top Country Albums Charts after its November release. But Brown still is hatching ways to make his concerts seems more like mini-fests with plenty of food and music to be enjoyed.

If you want to know what’s behind Brown and his music, you don’t have to go any farther than his hit song — No. 1on Billboard’s Hot Country Chart — “Chicken Fried.”

You’d think that Brown’s success might have nudged him away from those simple pleasures, but a recent telephone conversations suggests otherwise as he frets about lack of time to spend with his fans, talks lovingly of his family and discusses the 20 news songs the band recently recorded which were written by Brown and his songwriting partner Wyatt Durrette.

Although the band is caught in a “whirlwind” now, Brown, age 30, seems to have no doubt that they will thrive as long as they keep their down-home values front and center.

“We bring the family bus out [on tour] once or twice a month. In between doing business stuff I spend time with them. That’s my core; it’s my dream to have the families and all my guys on the road,” he said. “There’s optimism; we all love each other. That’s where the music comes from and success comes from it too. That [love] is all that really matters.”