Zack Brown Tries to Gain New Southern Ground with Nashville Festival after Controversial Comments About Luke Bryan's 'That's My Kind of Night'

Zack Brown recently got "Knee Deep" in controversy after he made some rather controversial comments about the state of country. Calling out fellow country artist Luke Bryan's new song, "That's My Kind of Night," by name. Now the singer is probably hoping that his upcoming Southern Ground Food and Music Festival in Nashville might ease some of the tensions his comments caused.

In an interview earlier in the month, Zack Brown voiced a strong opinion against country music clichés, telling listeners: “There’s not a lot of the country format that I really enjoy listening to. If I hear one more tailgate-in-the-moonlight, Daisy Duke song, I'm gonna throw up."

He also went on to call out artist Luke Bryan by name, saying:

“I love Luke Bryan and he’s had some great songs, but this new song is the worst song I’ve ever heard. I see it being giant commercially successful in what is called country music these days, but I also feel like the people deserve something better than that. Country fans and country listeners deserve to have something better ... a song that really has something to say, something that makes you feel something. Good music makes you feel something."

Obviously these comments have not gone over well in Nashville, nut now Brown might have a chance to mend some fences with his new Southern Ground Food and Music Festival. Where the festival was long schedule before his comments, the timing and the food might be enough to gain the singer some penitence.

In an interview with Nashville Scene Brown talked about why he decided to move his festival to the music city:

"We're working on building our culture in Nashville. The festival is a tip of our hats to the community there to let them know that Southern Ground is making a presence here and that we're bringing a strong identity along with the things that the great parts of the city stand for. ...We don't just want to do Nashville justice. Anything we do at Southern Ground, we want it to be excellent. That's why we want it there."

The festival comes to Nashville' s Riverfront Park this weekend, Friday, 27-Saturday, 28.