{"id":19192,"date":"2019-10-09T09:03:42","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T15:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1812948"},"modified":"2019-10-09T09:03:42","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T15:03:42","slug":"we-miss-you-already-zac-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/music-news\/we-miss-you-already-zac-brown\/","title":{"rendered":"We Miss You Already, Zac Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by Alison Bonaguro<\/a><\/span> 24m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

It looks like Zac Brown is saying goodbye to country.<\/p>\n

Which makes me a little melancholy, because I fell in love with his music the literal minute I first heard \u201cChicken Fried\u201d in 2008. But I get it.<\/p>\n

And I respect Brown for his decision to say that he\u2019s not just<\/em> a country artist. Because if his creativity is leading him down a new path, why would we want him to fake it and just play along? If his heart\u2019s not in it, I\u2019m guessing the songs would reflect that.<\/p>\n

In a new interview<\/a> with CBS News<\/em>, Brown talked about his band\u2019s latest album, The Owl<\/em>, and how frustrating it was to be forced to pick a category.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I put out a record, I have to pick a category to put it in. You have to. You release a record on iTunes, you have to pick a category. One category. You can\u2019t say country, rock, reggae, soul and whatever,\u201d Brown explained. \u201cNo, you get one bucket to coin yourself in.\u201d<\/p>\n

So he did have to label the album country, which may be why listeners are surprised to hear how country it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not just a country artist. I\u2019m not,\u201d he said. \u201cI have to create what moves me and what connects with my fans. And I don\u2019t really care about their buckets. But I don\u2019t like being coined as a \u2019country artist.\u2019 I like just being an \u2019artist.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown does understand the purists, he said, and hopes that they\u2019ll still go back and listen to the songs of his that they do like. And then leave him alone. \u201c\u2019Cause I don\u2019t really care what they have to say about (the new songs).\u201d<\/p>\n

While he may no longer be just country, but I am thoroughly grateful for all the country music he did share with us in the past decade. I remember talking with Brown<\/a> in 2011, and he told me how his older brother played him some Garth Brooks on the way to the beach one day, and he\u2019d had an epiphany about how important lyrics can (and should) be in music.<\/p>\n


Here is a playlist for those purists who only want to hear the countriest songs from Brown\u2019s catalog of singles and deep cuts:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cChicken Fried\u201d<\/p>\n

Embedded from www.youtube.com<\/a>.