Lenny Kravitz has too much going on. The 47-year-old multiplatinum rocker is hitting the road to promote his ninth album, “Black and White America,” which was released last year.NASHVILLE, Tenn. – “The Foundation,” the major-label debut of the Zac Brown Band, was something special with more than 2 million copies sold and four No. 1 country singles.
Zac Brown says that was nothing compared to what’s on the way.
The Atlanta band will release its highly anticipated new studio album, “You Get What You Give,” on Sept. 21 from Atlantic Records/Southern Ground Artists. Brown said it’s “going to be amazing.”
“Every step of it’s done the right way, and I expect people are really going to love this record and see the depth of our musicianship,” Brown said last week in a phone interview from New York City, where the band was opening for the Dave Matthews Band.
“We’re always growing. Not that we’ve arrived at any grand finale or anything, but the progress from this last record to this one, it’s tremendous and I’m proud of it.”
“The Foundation” remains at No. 2 on the Billboard country albums chart 86 weeks into its release.
During the album’s slow ride to the top based on the strength of songs like “Toes” and “Chicken-Fried” and a live show hailed in all quarters, the band has slowly gained a reputation for genre-defying music. The group won the Grammy for best new artist this year.
Brown promised “You Get What You Give” will take that rep to a new level.
He said there’s a helping of country radio-friendly tunes among the album’s 15 tracks. But the band also explores its other influences. There’s a little Texas swing, some jam-band jams and lots of harmony along the lines of Crosby, Stills Nash & Young and the Eagles. The Allman Brothers Band was an influence as well.
Brown said the album is marked by maturity.
“We write all the time, and there’s no way that we could record everything that we write, so this is the cream of the crop of the last three or four years,” Brown said.
Brown acknowledged expectations are high for the album, and he believes the six-piece has reached them.
The album’s title is “one of my biggest philosophies that I try to live by,” Brown said. “Very simply stated, this record is going to reap the reward of all the love we put into this music. It’s a defining record.”
