20 Country Albums Every Rock Fan Should Listen To
7. You Get What You Give - Zac Brown Band
The Zac Brown Band has been known as the one country band that most rockers can give a pass to. From their wild rock and roll covers onstage to their amazing vocal harmonies, there's a certain level of musicianship to respect about these guys even if you aren't of the country persuasion. While the musicianship is one thing, You Get What You Give showed them coming into their own as one of the most talented ensembles on the country charts.
Though this album is still a vision of Brown writing a bunch of pop-tinged country tunes, there's an added amount of depth behind these songs that put it a notch above their debut. As the album unfolds, you have beachy vibes of something like Knee Deep interspersed with Colder Weather, whose tragic story holds the same amount of water regardless of what genre it's classified in. Even when adding country legend Alan Jackson to the mix, Brown can hold his own on the vocal front, showing just the right amount of restraint and force to drive these songs home.
Given the amount of power at play here, it's no wonder why Dave Grohl eventually hooked up with these guys to record an EP shortly after this album was released. Zac Brown Band might be a pretty safe choice for a country band, and yet the chops on display here haven't dulled in the slightest ever since its release.