Cookin’ up good time with the Zac Brown Band at Chastain
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday, May 25, 2009
The Zac Brown Band will be cooking up its trademark bubbling mix of country, rock, bluegrass and jam-band sounds, including its new hit, “Whatever It Is,” when it headlines a special Memorial Day show Monday at Chastain Park.
Offstage, about 50 or 60 lucky fans will get to enjoy Brown’s equally tasty cooking when he serves up smoked pork tenderloin, Brunswick stew, candied sweet potatoes and “pocketknife slaw” before the show.
Angela Morris
The Zac Brown Band
Zac Brown Band Memorial Day Picnic
5 p.m. Monday at Chastain Park Amphitheatre, 4469 Stella Drive N.W., Buckhead, tickets: $28; www.classicchastain.org.
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The dishes come from an earlier Zac Brown incarnation, when he and his father ran a restaurant on the shores of Lake Oconee called Zac’s Place. Those at the Chastain meet-and-greet will be sampling bona fide Brown recipes.
“A lot of these people, it will be their first time eating our cooking,” Brown said.
But probably not the first time seeing the band. This hardworking Dahlonega native/Smyrna resident has toured upward of 250 dates a year and is familiar to Atlanta fans from his $3-cover-charge nights at the Dixie Tavern in Marietta.
Brown called from a bus (naturally) heading for a gig in Morgantown, W.Va., to answer a few questions about food, family and his big (and tasty) country hit “Chicken Fried.”
What’s “pocketknife slaw”?
It’s a variation on a salad-slash-slaw I used to make growing up, going to deer camp with dad. … At deer camp sometimes we’d be there cutting up vegetables with our pocketknife; it’s made in places where you don’t always have access to kitchen knives.
You’re one of 12 siblings. Was there a lot of competition for that last biscuit at the dinner table?
Not necessarily. There was always a lot of food. Some of them are 21 years older than me, so we were not all living at the house at the same time.
How many dates will you play this year?
Somewhere around 200, 220.
Has that work ethic gotten you where you are now?
It’s just like any other job in the world: You work really hard at it; you do it a lot, over time you’re going to get better at it. It’s basically a blue-collar approach to making a living. We still go at it just as hard, if not harder, than we used to.
Considering your restaurant and your first big hit being “Chicken Fried,” is there a food theme running through your career?
Music and food always go hand in hand. They are things we have to do every day: Every day we have to eat, and I have to play music.
