Country music is living poetry

»» Zac Brown Band will be in SA for the Cape Town Country Music Festival.

- Hein Kaiser

Country music, said Zac Brown of the Zac Brown Band, is a living, breathing form of poetry. It's about real life and things that we go through every day of our lives. This belief is at the heart of everything the Zac Brown Band does - from the lyrics they write to the performances they deliver.

To Brown, it's a genre that captures life's most impactful moments in simple, relatable lines, and a craft that Brown has spent his entire career working on. And in a music industry where form and style can spring into life as quickly as it dies again, Brown said that country music has endured because of its simplicity and authenticity.

"People think that they don't like or resonate with country music, but then they find the right country music and they're like, 'Wow, this really speaks to me,"" he said. It is about telling real stories with real emotion, something that he and his band endeavour to do in every song.

To this end the Zac Brown Band's music is filled with humour, life lessons, and emotive storytelling. Tracks like the classic Chicken Fried are more than just songs.