{"id":872,"date":"2017-06-07T16:18:25","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T15:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/?p=872"},"modified":"2018-05-16T09:17:58","modified_gmt":"2018-05-16T08:17:58","slug":"welcome-home-by-the-zac-brown-band-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/2017\/06\/07\/welcome-home-by-the-zac-brown-band-album-review\/","title":{"rendered":"ALBUM REVIEW: &#8220;Welcome Home&#8221; by the Zac Brown Band &#8211; Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>After the success of &#8216;<em>Jekyll and Hyde<\/em>&#8216; in 2015, which featured the recently departed\u00a0Chris Cornell as well as other genre-bending anthems, Zac Brown Band launched their 5th studio album, &#8220;<em>Welcome Home<\/em>&#8221; last month. Since then, it has crowned Country chart albums on both sides of the Atlantic and is the current number 1 album on the UK Official Country Album Charts. We take a look at the album and its highlights&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Opening with homegrown-belter &#8216;<em>Roots<\/em>&#8216;, this album is a notable move back to the band&#8217;s roots musically. The song reminisces about the\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-874 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/zac-brown-300x180.jpg\" alt=\"zac brown\" width=\"560\" height=\"336\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/zac-brown-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/zac-brown-676x406.jpg 676w, https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/zac-brown.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/>band&#8217;s origins, and the early lives of the band&#8217;s members. It provides an ultimate message of how their origins remind them of where they have come from through to the award-winning band that they have become.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8216;Real Thing&#8217;, &#8216;2 places at 1 time&#8217;<\/em> and &#8216;<em>Your Majesty<\/em>&#8216; certainly move back to the band&#8217;s original material. With classic harmonies and guitar licks, the songs tell the story of genuine love as well as the yearning of home. This theme of &#8216;Home&#8217; features heavily throughout this album, and fits well with the &#8216;roots&#8217; narrative portrayed by the band in recent times<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This album&#8217;s third track is a soul-inspired love song about the &#8216;<em>Long Haul<\/em>&#8216; of committed relationships. With the backing of violins and soul-infused guitar, this song is definitely a highlight for us.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;<em>Family Table<\/em>&#8216; will certainly be a favourite of this album for many. Again, it has a significant message about home and family life, with the &#8216;Family Table&#8217; at the centre of it all. Indeed, the song describes how this table is the &#8216;cornerstone&#8217; of the family home. With its exciting fiddle-solos, this song is a huge highlight!<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;<em>My Old Man<\/em>&#8216; is the lead single from this album. Not only is it a highlight, but it is the most\u00a0personal and poignant song. Telling the story of Zac Brown&#8217;s own Father, it is a song about the desire for Brown to follow in the examples set by his &#8216;Old Man&#8217;. With rich harmonies and a touching violin melody, this song is one of the band&#8217;s most personal yet.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst &#8216;<em>Start Over<\/em>&#8216; is a punchy tune inspired by Old Americana telling the story of a struggling couple, it is an upbeat number that gets the foot a-tapping!\u00a0&#8216;<em>Trying to Drive<\/em>&#8216; is an energetic duet\u00a0between the Zac Brown and pop singer Aslyn. Whilst this is not a new track, with the singers performing this song since 2010, it is a refreshing tune full of countrified guitar solos and soulful harmonies.<\/p>\n<p>The concluding track, &#8216;<em>All the Best<\/em>&#8216; comes from legendary singer-songwriter John Prine. Zac Brown performs this duet with \u00a0Kasey Musgraves, who has become one of country music&#8217;s most popular female artists in recent years. The poignant finger-picking melody leaves the tune ringing in your head for hours.<\/p>\n<p><strong>This album is definitely a move back to Zac Brown Band&#8217;s roots, both musically and metaphorically. The album features an array of homegrown anthems which will prove popular with their faithful fans. Whilst it s a move back from the increasing genre-bending Nashville scene, this move is certainly not a bad thing. &#8216;<em>Welcome Home<\/em>&#8216; Zac Brown Band!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After the success of &#8216;Jekyll and Hyde&#8216; in 2015, which featured the recently departed\u00a0Chris Cornell as well as other genre-bending anthems, Zac Brown Band launched their 5th studio album, &#8220;Welcome Home&#8221; last month. Since then, it has crowned Country chart albums on both sides of the Atlantic and is the current number 1 album on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[14,15,10,5,13,12],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/welcome-home-album.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1563,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions\/1563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}