Zac Brown Band will bow its new studio album and newest band member on July 10.
“Uncaged,” the group”s third major label set, features the addition of percussionist Daniel de los Reyes. Brown told the AP that the ZBB, which is already quite the collective, was inspired to add the percussionist to “create a new kind of pulse within the band.” De los Reyes previously played with Earth, Wind & Fire and Jennifer Lopez. No word yet on who will produce the set.
The band”s last album was 2010″s “You Get What You Give” on Southern Ground/Atlantic.
We”re not sure how they”re finding time to record since ZBB is on tour now through the rest of the summer behind its biggest, most expansive production so far. “We always want to exceed everyone”s expectations,” Brown told Hitfix when we talked to him at the Academy of Country Music Awards a few weeks ago. “We want them to come in expecting one thing and get way more than that.” The tour includes ZBB”s Southern Ground label mates Sonia Leigh and Blackberry Smoke.
Brown is also hands-on in getting Camp Southern Ground off the ground. A pet project of Brown’s ever since he was a camp counselor when he was 14, the Camp, based in Fayetteville, Ga., will be “a state-of-the-art camp where kids can come-mainstream, underprivileged, and kids with developmental disorders,” the father of four says. “It’s a big project, a big undertaking. It’s coming together so far and I believe it will the rest of the way, but we need help.” Folks can make donations to the camp, which plans to open in 2014, at www.campsouthernground.org.