“You are the best sit-down crowd we’ve ever had,” Zac Brown told the sell-out crowd Monday at Mystic Lake Casino. That was a left-handed compliment.

Pretty soon the Zac Brown Band had the fans on their feet for pretty much the rest of the night. What was most impressive about Brown’s two hours onstage was that these six musicians truly enjoy making music together. It didn’t matter what style of music or whether it was an original tune or a cover, these guys genuinely dug playing together.

Brown is a strong singer who’s not afraid of unleashing his loud, robust voice or reining it in to manifest his sensitivities. He can be quiet and intense at the same time. He’s also a fast and expressive acoustic picker, and his bandmates distinguished themselves, especially slide guitarist Coy Bowles and fiddler Jimmy DeMartini.  However, we could have done without Clay Cook’s half-hearted attempt to do the Beatles’ “Blackbird” as a jazz guitar piece or his off-target falsetto vocals.

ZBB played most of the selections from their best-selling “Foundation” album, a new song and covers of the Band, the Beatles, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Ray LaMontagne, John Mayer, Stevie Wonder and Charlie Daniels. My favorites were the new, James Taylor-evoking “Colder Weather,” the gospelly “I Shall Be Released” and the evocative “Into the Mystic.”

Here is the set list: 1. Whatever It Is 2. Where the Boat Leaves From 3. It’s Not OK 4. Who Knows 5. Jolene 6. Different Kind of Fine 7. the Night They Drove Ol Dixie Down (the Band) 8. Let It Go 9. Highway 20 Ride 10. Devil Went Down to Georgia (Charlie Daniels) 11. Blackbird (Beatles) 12. Colder Weather (with a great line about being ‘born for leavin’”) 13. Toes 14. Isn’t She Lovely (Stevie wonder) mashup with Neon (John Mayer) 15. Free mashup with Into the Mystic (Van Morrison) 16. Chicken Fried  ENCORE 17. I Shall Be Released (Dylan) 18. Sic ‘em on a Chicken

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 12:13 am and is filed under Concerts, Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.