Courtesy of www.jeffography.com

For the Zac Brown Band, 2009 has been what a sports wonk would call a career season. The band's stats are huge, and it won a rookie of the year award.

Now, the band hopes that what comes next doesn't leave them with another sporting world cliche: flash in the pan.

"We've had some success, but for us, the success is not necessarily a flash in the pan," said drummer Chris Fryar, who comes with the act to the Salem Civic Center on Thursday. "We want to make a long career of being very good at what we do. And hopefully in the long term we'll be able to do that and keep fans around for a long time, knowing that they can come out and see good, quality musicianship and hear good, quality songs out of the band.

"For us to sit back and just rest on our laurels, it would have to involve a certain level of apathy on our part, which none of us possess. We're all just so driven."

Huge start

Before moving on, let's take a look back at the Atlanta-based band's recent past.

Its major label debut album, "The Foundation," has been a major country crossover success, peaking at No. 11 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The platinum-selling disc has spent 45 weeks on the chart and remains No. 2 on the Billboard country chart. Leadoff single "Chicken Fried" was a No. 1 country song and hit No. 20 on the pop chart. It was followed onto the charts by "Whatever It Is" and "Toes."

In April, those hits helped Zac Brown Band win the Academy of Country Music award for top new group. The act received four Country Music Association award nominations, including for new artist and vocal group. "Chicken Fried" was nominated for best song and best single at the CMA Awards, scheduled for Nov. 11.

In June, the band played Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, where it was astounded by the crowd response.

"It was a pretty magical night for us," Fryar said late last month in a phone interview from Atlanta. "The crowd was really huge and very warm and receptive [to] what we were doing. Thousands of people all crammed into this pavilion-sized tent. I don't think we've ever felt so welcome in a musical area or arena where we were thinking that we probably fit least."

A laid-back eclecticism with occasional lightning flashes of tremendous musical chops might explain that. So might the everyman, good-time lyrics, with statements such "You know I like my chicken fried/Cold beer on a Friday night" and "Gonna lay in the hot sun and roll a big fat one/And grab my guitar and play."

It's a group where Travis-picking meets chicken-pickin', where there's space for Jimmy Buffett and Bob Marley. Fryar said most of the credit goes to lead singer/songwriter/guitarist Brown and his songwriting partner, old friend Wyatt Durrette.

But the band members -- Jimmy De Martini (violin, vocals), John Driskell Hopkins (bass, vocals), Coy Bowles (guitar, organ), Clay Cook (guitar, organ, mandolin, pedal steel, vocals) and Fryar -- are part of a collaborative process.

Country, soul, heavy metal, rock 'n' roll and folk are in the stew of collective influences. But the band tries not to let the influences carry them away, Fryar said.

"We take all of our influences and just sort of allow them to color the music, for the music," he said. "It's very important to us not to force anything to happen. ... I have to say it's a stroke of luck that so many people enjoy the kind of music that we enjoy making."

A show with no breaks

The band took just a little time off the road about the time Brown's wife, Shelly, had the couple's third child on Sept. 9. The show is back to the road now, with stops including a sold-out Austin City Limits Music Festival gig on the itinerary before it stops in Salem.

Fryar said the three opening acts -- Nic Cowan, Levi Lowery and Sonia Leigh -- are all part of Brown's newly formed label, Southern Ground Records. That's a big show, but there will be no set breaks. ZBB will back up all three, then play its own set, with an encore that will feature all three openers.

"All of us have at one point said, man, I wish the show didn't have to stop for 35 or 40 minutes while they changed sets," he said. "By incorporating them, it spotlights the opening acts a little bit more ... and there's not a break in the flow of the show."

So, not only should it be a fast-paced event, Fryar expects it to be fun as well. Playing live is what the Zac Brown Band lives for, he said.

"For all of us, playing music and being musicians on the road, it's something that's in our blood ... it's just a force for all of us to be a part of," he said. "It's fantastic. We love being on the road."