Sister Hazel’s Jett Beres knows that 2020 has thrown all kind of curveballs at the world this year, but one thing is for certain, the multi-platinum selling band known for hits like “All For You”, “Happy” and “Change Your Mind” always has key plays in their back pockets to somehow, someway connect with their beloved fans The Hazelnuts. They will kick off a series of drive-in concerts starting Thursday, October 22, in Tampa, Fla., at the Raymond James Stadium Parking Lot. They’ve extended the run to include Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina concerts into November.
Beres said the plan had come to fruition after months of coordination. He’s dismayed that the music industry, especially, has been decimated by the pandemic. Sister Hazel, he said, is a live band and lends itself well to a tailgating atmosphere.
“Back when the whole thing just started around March, we were coming back from a ski trip that we do with our fans, in Tahoe, when everything went south,” Beres said. “We were mapping out what we were going to do. We were thinking we were going to start touring again in the summer, we were doing zoom calls as a band weekly and talking about options. There was a church doing a church service in a drive-in. This is going to be a little bit like I know somebody who invented the question mark, but I can tell you, when we were talking as a band, no one had done it yet.”
They swung the bat and put on a few drive-in concerts in Austin and chose their home state of Florida to roll out the next round. Sister Hazel formed in Gainesville in 1993 and followed with an indie release on their debut self-titled album. Then, in 1997, …Somewhere More Familiar catapulted the band to a worldwide stage with the Billboard Hot 100 No. 11 hit “All For You”.
“We’re just doing what we can. Hopefully give people a chance to get out and experience music, albeit in a different way,” he said, mentioning that he loved seeing people grilling in their parking stalls at the shows. “Our band has that casual family vibe. You’re a community, you’re a little tribe within a big tribe of Sister Hazel Nuts.”
Beres said that the band will have to forgo the packed-in, shoulder-to-shoulder scenes they are accustomed to, but what won’t be cinched is the band’s high-energy performance.
“It’s not like going to see us at a House of Blues or a big festival, but it’s is own unique thing. It’s the best we can do right now,” he said. “We’re bringing all the dynamic of our full productions shows. The full live show is about the energy from the songs and the overall positive good spirit vibe that people come to expect from Sister Hazel shows.”
The band recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of the album Fortress. The band’s third album yielded the hit “Change Your Mind” and also features the singles “Champagne High” and “Beautiful Thing”. Elements, the band’s most current release, and 10th studio album overall, is a continuation and evolution of the bands southern rock, roots and pop sound. In recent years, the band has had four back-to-back Billboard Top Country Album Chart entries. Beres said that the band isn’t about to do a complete turn and go completely country.
“We’ve always had one foot in that world,” Beres said. “Our heroes are southern rock like Lynyrd Skynyrd, .38 special, those were big influences. But we also liked the early Eagles, Jackson Browne, Crosby Stills and Nash – the alt country sound. In the 90s we were a little too country for rock and roll and maybe that has flipped a little, or maybe the country world has.
It’s marketing and labels that put genres on music. We can’t control that, we just make the best music we can make. I’m all about and the band are all about being true to the music and the song. We’ve been fortunate enough to float in and out of these worlds which gives us the creative freedom that we feel helps do what we need to be doing.”
The band is working on new material and exchanging song files. While they are anxiously awaiting getting back to the studio to really capture the live sound they are known for, Beres said, that they continue to trust each other on what roles the band has chosen for each member. After more than two decades of playing in Sister Hazel, Beres said it was strange to not be playing live with the band. He’s most happy with his wife, his kids and his dogs, but being off the road during the pandemic has been eye-opening.
Other than the scene in the movie Grease, he’s never seen a movie at a drive-in. He laughs that if you haven’t seen Grease or the movie The Outsiders you’re missing out. What makes him most happy?
“The last time I haven’t played for six months is before this band, was in college,” Beres said. “My whole adult life has been with Sister Hazel, playing music even when we were in the studio, we were doing shows. I’ve learned through all of this how much this means to me. I don’t think I took it for granted, but I definitely don’t take all the moving parts, the brotherhood of the band, for granted, the playing live shows and feeling that energy, delivering and giving back to the audience and creating music is definitely what make me fulfilled. Happy yes, but fulfilled is probably a better word.”
Sister Hazel is also comprised of Ken Block on lead vocals, Andrew Copeland on guitar, Ryan Newell on guitar and Mark Trojanowski on drums.
October 22 | Tampa, Fla. | Raymond James Stadium Parking Lot
October 23 | Newberry, Fla. | The Post Farm
October 24 | Orlando, Fla. | Central Florida Fairgrounds
November 12 | Birmingham, Ala. | Grand River Drive-In
November 13 | Atlanta, Georgia | Six Flags Over Georgia
November 14 | North Charleston, S.C. | Charleston Area Convention Center
