The second installment of the Chenango Blues Association’s Summer Concert Series is slated for 7 p.m., Thursday on the East Park stage in downtown Norwich. Hot Day at the Zoo (HDATZ) will bring its “zoograss” stylings all the way from Lowell, Mass. to Chenango County for the first time in the band’s ten year history.

HDATZ’s lineup includes: Jon Cumming, banjo, dobro, vocals; Mike Dion, guitar, harmonica, vocals; Jed Rosen, upright bass, vocals; and JT Lawrence, mandolin, vocals. Dion and Cumming are the band’s two primary songwriters.

Dion said while the band has not yet performed in Norwich, they have played in the Albany, Buffalo, New York City and Saranac Lake areas, as well as a myriad of other locations.

“New York ... we love upstate New York,” he said, adding the band recorded its third album - a live album - Zoograss, at The Waterhole in Saranac Lake in 2009.

The group both headlines shows and has performed as special guests for artists including The Band’s Levon Helm, David Grisman, moe., Ryan Montbleau Band, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals and Hot Buttered Rum.

Dion commented the band’s music might fall into the category of bluegrass, but they prefer to go by a genre all their own: zoograss.

“Zoograss is a little more wild, more aggressive ... just like at a zoo,” he said. “We take other genres into the mix, we don’t just stick with traditional bluegrass, we add in blues, jazz, americana, even some swing stuff. We cover all the bases.”

The group of four also incorporates alternative rock and classic rock into their sound.

“We’re big deadheads too,” Dion professed, adding there are no limits to the influences of HDATZ’s sound.