It's hard to muster up much negativity for such a perpetually nice guy as Zac Brown. Performing Friday night for a near-capacity crowd at Gexa Energy Pavilion, the 37-year-old country-rocker from Georgia sang about fatherly love in "I'll Be Your Man (Song for a Daughter)" and showed feel-good images of Camp Southern Ground, his retreat for kids with learning and emotional difficulties. He even started his set at a very un-rockstar-like 8 p.m., as if he was worried about keeping fans up too late.
But all the good will in the world couldn't make up for the overall blandness that stuck like white on rice to most his music. Early in the show, Brown called his new tune "Remedy" "the most important song we've ever written." But with its humdrum melody and lyrics ("We're all in this world together/Life's a gift that we have to treasure"), the song was all hugs and no hooks.
Although Brown tops the country charts, he takes a lot of his inspiration from soft-rock. He sounded particularly in debt to James Taylor in "Colder Weather," a piano ballad about a truck driver trying to love someone from afar. Yet Brown's tenor has little of the warmth or richness of Taylor's voice. Throughout the show, his singing was pleasant, inoffensive, and instantly forgettable.
The rest of the Zac Brown Band picked up some of the slack with their golden harmonies and everything-but-the-kitchen-sink style. Fleshed out with a horn section and backing quartet, the group hop-scotched through bluegrass, mariachi, jazz and the occasional long jam reminiscent of the Dave Matthews Band, a group Brown studied closely during his days as an opening act for the band.
That versatility served the group well on its covers, which included a piano-driven "Under the Bridge" (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and a lovely, fiddle-laced remake of the Beatles' "Let it Be." Even better was their version of Jason Isbell's poignant "Dress Blues," although fans cheering wildly at the video images of soldiers and American flags apparently didn't realize it's a song about jingoism and the perils of fighting "somebody's Hollywood war."
The somber lyrics of "Dress Blues" were about as heavy as the mood got in a show constantly peppered with Brown's pina colada country songs like "Toes," the new "Castaway" and "Where the Boat Leaves From." The latter morphed into Jimmy Buffett's "Volcano," another reminder of the ongoing Buffett-ization of country music: Brown might not have Kenny Chesney's tanned good looks or his athletic stage presence, but like Chesney, he knows the easiest way to make today's country fans happy is to take them to the beach.
