Zac Brown Band’s much-anticipated fifth major-label studio album, Welcome Home, drops today (May 12). It’s a project Zac promised would go “straight back to our roots.”
Zac has kept his word. Following the release of “My Old Man” (Feb. 3), “Real Thing” (March 20), “Family Table” (April 7), “All the Best” (April 21) and “Roots” (May 3), it’s clear that the album is a 180-degree deviation from 2015’s Jekyll + Hyde, which pushed the country boundaries with traces of electronic music, hard rock and big band sounds.
One of the reasons the album feels so rootsy is that it’s ZBB’s first album where all of the songs were written specially for the project.
“This is the first record that I wrote all the songs for this record,” said Zac to Nash Country Daily. “I’ve never done that before. We took a personal approach. We picked different categories and we tried to write a song in that vein. And it was great because after I made my last record, Jekyl + Hyde—that was kind of a concept album to show the range of the band, which I loved doing. It was fun. Then I started my other project, Sir Roselvelt [trio with Zac, Niko Moon and Ben Simonetti]. Doing the more electronic-centered music with that band helped me to get back to a purist approach with Welcome Home. I was invigorated and I had no other pieces of songs that were floating around anywhere. Usually, an album for me is the best collection of songs that I had at the time. Welcome Home is the first one where the songs were written entirely for the album to be personal. I’m really proud of it. I’m really proud to get back to the songs. My favorite music listening to growing up was James Taylor, Jim Croce, Dan Fogelberg—it was amazing guitar parts and harmony and songs that made you feel something. It was great for me to get to come home and make this album. I like to stretch as an artist, but this was great to get back to the core of how it all began.”
Welcome Home Track List
- “Roots”
- “Real Thing”
- “Long Haul”
- “2 Places at 1 Time”
- “Family Table”
- “My Old Man”
- “Start Over”
- “Your Majesty”
- “Trying to Drive”
- “All the Best”
Check out a few of ZBB’s new songs below, including “Long Haul,” “2 Places at 1 Time” and “Your Majesty”
