Thanks to chance stop in NM, artist's work now gracing cover of Zac Brown Band album

Artists dream of gaining attention. But what happens when it's national attention? Brandon Maldonado is experiencing it and he's doing just fine. His artwork — "Our Lady of Merciful Fate" — is being used as the cover art for Grammy Award-winning country group Zac Brown Band's new album, "Uncaged." The album was released July 10 and Billboard is predicting the album will sell more than 200,000 copies in its first week and debut in the No. 1 spot. The cover piece is only the latest work that he's done for the band. Maldonado said about two years ago, the Zac Brown Band was on tour and made a stop at the Hard Rock Casino Albuquerque Presents The Pavilion right before the band released its last record, "You Get What You Give." "They boys were doing some local sightseeing in Old Town, and they just happened to go into Johnny Salas' shop 'Santisima'," he said. "I wasn't there but my work was and Zac picked up a few pieces and contacted me shortly after and made it clear that he wanted me to do work for their next album cover. It's kind of funny that it was about a week before he even released his second album."...more