John Driskell Hopkins (founding member of the Zac Brown Band) has released his second holiday album, entitled You Better Watch Out, with The Joe Gransden Big Band. This follows the success of In the Spirit: A Celebration of the Holidays, released in 2015 with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra (and on vinyl in 2016).

Recorded and mixed at Hopkins’ new studio — Brighter Shade Studios — You Better Watch Out will feature appearances by musicians including Béla Fleck (“Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer”), Joe Gransden (“I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”), Aoife O’Donovan (“Santa Baby”), Daniel De Los Reyes (“Donde Esta Santa Claus?”) and Clay Cook (“Here Comes Santa Claus”).

The Joe Gransden Big Band recorded at Brighter Shade Studios on June 5 & 12, 2017
Produced by: John Driskell Hopkins
Arranged by: Wes Funderburk & John Driskell Hopkins
Big Band Orchestration by: Wes Funderburk
Engineered by: Thom “TK” Kidd & John Driskell Hopkins
Edited by: John Driskell Hopkins
Mixed by: John Driskell Hopkins
Additional Mixing: Matt Mangano & Thom “TK” Kidd
ProTools Engineer: Randy Warnken
Assistant Engineer: Johnathon Conner
Technical Logistics: Josh Houghkirk
Additional recording: Sarah Elizabeth Gulley Hopkins Booker on December 18, 1977

Aoife O’Donovan – Vocals – Santa Baby
Aoife O’Donovan appears courtesy of Yep Rock Records & was recorded by Andrew Taub at Brooklyn Bridge Studios, Brooklyn, NY

Béla Fleck – Banjo – Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer
Béla Fleck recorded by John Driskell Hopkins & Brandon Bell at Southern Ground Studios, Nashville, TN

Daniel De Los Reyes – Percussion & Vocals – Donde Esta Santa Claus?

Clay Cook – Guitar – Here Comes Santa Claus

Joe Gransden – Vocals & Trumpet – I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

You Better Watch Out!

The Man With The Bag

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

Zat You, Santa Claus?

Dónde Está Santa Claus? (feat. Daniel De Los Reyes)

Sing A Kris Kringle Jingle

Happy Holidays / The Holiday Season

Here Comes Santa Claus (feat. Clay Cook)

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (feat. Joe Gransden)

Santa Baby (feat. Aoife O’Donovan)

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer (feat. Béla Fleck)

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Founding Member of the Zac Brown Band, John Driskell Hopkins, teams up with Mountain Home Recording Artists, Balsam Range, to Independently Release Daylight on January 22, 2013
John Driskell Hopkins has walked the musical path for the last 20 years. As a bass player, guitar player, singer and songwriter for several bands of the rock variety, Hopkins rooted himself in the Atlanta, GA music scene in 1995, producing records and touring with his band Brighter Shade and later becoming a founding member of the Zac Brown Band to this day. Now he has teamed up with North Carolina bluegrass band, Balsam Range, to record a new album, Daylight, which debuted at the Southern Ground Music and Food Festival in Charleston, SC in October 2012. Daylight was independently produced and is set for national release on January 22, 2013 and features an array of special guests.

A lifelong fan of bluegrass and gospel music, John became an instant fan of Balsam Range, an award-winning and unstoppable 5-piece hailing from Haywood County, North Carolina. As John’s plans for a solo record took shape, he realized that BR’s authentic style and approach could bring his songs new life, and a vision for his record became clear.

Over the course of a year, the collective made use of their sparse days off the road and arranged to pow-wow and track basics at John’s home studio in Atlanta, GA or at Crossroads Studio in Arden, NC, eventually bringing the songs to form. John utilized the Zac Brown Band’s amazing new Southern Ground Studios in Nashville, TN for the final engineering and mixing, and in the middle of September 2012, the album was completed.

John is thrilled to have included several special guests on the album, including Zac Brown on “I Will Lay Me Down,” a sweet and sacred song; Levi Lowrey on “How Could I?” a song co-written by the two, and the heavenly Joey Feek of Joey + Rory on the autobiographical “Bye Baby Goodbye.” And of the musicians featured on Daylight, John could not have done better: the unmatched Jerry Douglas opens the record with dobro on “Runaway Train,” and Tony Trischka brings his banjo mastery to the title-track, “Daylight,” a longtime song in Hopkins’ repertoire about breaking through life’s troubles into brighter times.

Of singing on stage with BR, John says “Being on stage with Balsam Range is like body-surfing in warm butter-cream icing with hillbilly cherubs. Smooth…..” Balsam Range is Buddy Melton (fiddle, vocals), Darren Nicholson (Mandolin, vocals), Marc Pruett (Banjo, Vocals), Caleb Smith (guitar, vocals), and Tim Surrett (bass, dobro, vocals).

If you’re a Zac Brown Band fan, you’ll hear a couple familiar songs, though most tracks are newly penned with BR’s talent and magic in mind, and a couple songs are some of John’s oldest tunes, written with his band of many years, Brighter Shade, and beautifully reworked for this special new project.

Hopkins met Zac Brown in 1998 at an open mic hosted by Hopkins. Over the next several years, they remained friends and with Hopkins lending a production hand, they released the first Zac Brown record, “Home Grown,” in 2004.

Hopkins became a founding member of the Zac Brown Band in 2005 and has enjoyed engineering and songwriting credits on hit songs such as “Toes,” “It’s Not OK,” and “Sic Em On A Chicken,” from the multi-platinum selling record “The Foundation,” as well as “Nothing,” “I Play The Road,” and “Settle Me Down,” from the platinum selling record, “You Get What You Give.”

As the ZBB continues to garner critical and public success through Grammy, CMA, and ACM Awards, Hopkins continues to share the spotlight on stage with his band of fellow songwriters and friends and is excited to share his collaboration with Balsam Range with the world.

johndriskellhopkins

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