Good music, cold beer, and fried chicken

Zac Brown is someone I've been following since the college days where he played for free at Dixie's Tavern in Atlanta.  He now has a full band and is making it big on the charts after "Chicken Fried" hit the radio last year.  I first heard it in 2003 and was hooked on his style.  He is a welcomed change from the overly 'poppy' country that monopolizes the charts these days.

We were able to see him at Terminal 5 only a few blocks from our house.  This tour was in support of his new label and a way to introduce his new acts.  His new artists (3) came out one at a time to play 3 original songs and then Zac joined them for 2 more.  This took about an hour and a half, followed by the Zac Brown Band playing for the next hour and a half.  The concert was amazing!

We were also lucky to be introduced to Clay Cook this evening.  He is now a permanent member of the Zac Brown Band, and an incredible talent.  His voice range was impressive, as were his skills at piano, guitar, mandolin, and fiddle.  I look forward to seeing him on a solo project soon. The video below is a cover of Dylan's 'I shall be released'.  Clay Cook sings after Zac Brown in the beginning, followed by Sonia Leigh and crew. I have a feeling his label is going to be successful.



Here is a snippet of Chicken Fried to appease the masses...


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'In music the passions enjoy themselves'

As someone has pointed out, the blog has been heavy into Theatre the past couple weeks.  We have been fortunate lately by scoring many free opportunities to see some great shows.  However, we do enjoy other arts.  We are big local music fans.  In Atlanta we frequented and enjoyed shows featuring The Goldest, Jupiter Watts, Envie, Water Liars, and those departed (not to name drop some killer bands I happen to know people in).

So in New York we had to find good spots for local music.  After a few searches, I had a list of several bands that I wanted to check out.  Great article on some of the top New York bands to see here.

On this evening we went to The Living Room in the Lower East Side.  The band was pretty interesting.  The lead singer had a deep funky voice, though it seemed like he wasn't a fan of remembering lyrics.  Also, there were 2 piano players in the band, which i enjoyed, however they seemed to struggle with who would play each part before the song.  I couldn't tell if this was a new band, or if they had a few subs on this evening.  Somehow, even with what appeared to be a lot of stress on stage, the set was pretty good.

However, our night at the Living Room was made a success by these ladies below.  They were quite a crew. If you look, the one on the left has her arm in a sling and she was walking with a cane, while the lady on the left clearly had a neck brace and had an arm in a soft cast.  Either they had 'join a fight club' on their bucket list, or they are still hoping for that workers comp settlement to come through. Either way, I had to look, laugh, and of course take a picture

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