Zach Bryan

One Liner: Excellent low-key singer-songwriter Americana

Wikipedia Genre: Country, alt-country
Home: Oklahoma

Poster Position: HEADLINER
Saturday.

As with some of the others on this poster, this guy was just at ACL, so I'm mostly using my review and analysis from then.

Thoughts: Sweet!  I had completely forgotten about this guy.  My niece's husband pinged me about him a year or two ago and I tried out his only album (at the time) and really liked it.  Before I get to that, do you have people in your life who frequently send you direct messages on Instagram?  I find that to be such an odd action.  Like, the message is not forwarding an Instagram post or whatever, its just a substitute for a text message.  I'm sure all the youth use this all the time and I'm the weird one, but it just seems unnecessarily complicated to message through an app.  Get offa my lawn!

I'll readily admit that when I pulled this guy up, my first thought was that this was going to be some bro-country garbage like Jon Pardi was last year, but this is absolutely not that.  Isn't there another country guy with the last name Bryan? LUKE!  Thanks google. When I clicked on the first song, the voice just sounds familiar.  He's got a special voice that isn't perfectly tuned, but also isn't one of those ragged and raw singer-songwriter voices either.  Here is what I said about his debut album back in 2020:

"Zach Bryan - DeAnn.  I have a relatively new Nephew-in-Law (is that a thing?  I'll assume that is a thing, I will call him Nephew-in-Law) who suggested this guy to me, and I like it.  Very stripped down singer-songwriter type stuff - just a guy and his guitar - but some of these have good turns of phrase that make the guy appealing to me.  I won't say he's as good as Tyler Childers, but he's in that same wheelhouse.  He doesn't have a bio on Spotify, and his photos look like he was a Young Life counselor in a prior life.  This article makes it sound like he's been blowing up because of this album, released without a label or publicity.  He says he is on active duty with the Navy (which is pretty damn boss), but threw this together when some friends encouraged him to let his stuff see the light of day.  "God Speed" has a few great lines, like "And I wanna love a girl who doesn't worry about the pictures when we kiss ... lay in bed all day and call that shit pure bliss."  That's the song I'll give you - 1.9 million streams [up to 46.9 million now!].

I can imagine that these tunes would be even better with a full-on band and arrangements backing them up.  They're good as they are, but adding in some drums and banjos and a children's choir and digeridoos and BASS DROPS would complete the package.  Cool story, good stuff."

Here's another, filmed with his usual DIY-level of professionalism.  "Heading South."  Over 15 million streams on YouTube is damn solid [now up to 135.3 million].

Just a sweaty old boy jammin' his guitar.

Since that album, he's obviously gotten even bigger and better, and he's released a 2020 album called Elizabeth, and a handful of singles.  Elizabeth adds a tiny bit more accompaniment - "Mine" has some piano tossed in there.  "Revival" full on adds in a drummer, extra singers, and a little piano!  It's WILD!  The funny thing is that its actually not, it still has this same stripped-down and raw sound.  Oh hey, and thats the top song!  Just over 16 million streams [now up to 27.6 million].

Those goofy ass little stool drums, man.  Nothing makes me think YoungLife and Christian summer camp like one of those things manned by some overly serious white boy who thinks they sound like Neal Peart.  Even though you aren't getting the studio experience in that video, you get the picture.  He's still pretty stripped down and basic.  Lets the lyrics shine through.

His story is alluded to up above in my old review, but let's talk a little more about him.  He was born in Japan while his parents were deployed overseas in the Navy, but his home is some tiny town called Oologah, Oklahoma.  He also joined the Navy, and would still make music on the side as a hobby.  His friends encouraged him to put some of that music out there, and so he started putting videos up on YouTube.  His first album was in 2019, and is named after his late mother.  He apparently recorded it with his friends in an AirBnB in Florida while on leave.  He ended up putting in eight years with the Navy before being honorably discharged in October 2021.  Now he can put his music at the forefront.  Oh, hey, and he's supposed to release his first real-deal studio album in 2 days.  Look forward to checking it out!

We'll go with one more, his newest track, just for giggles.  Although "Open the Gate" is the named single on this release, the second song has all the streams, so we'll go with that one.  "Something in the Orange," released as a single in 2022 and already 12.5 million streams [now his top streamer at 164 million streams].

Lovely.  And all of those fan videos he stitched together with sunsets and sunrises were really cool too.  Except for the dorks dancing for the camera or otherwise looking at it.  Those were lame.  Show me more videos of nature and the sun.  Good tune!

And since I wrote this, he released that new album last Friday.  I had sort of forgotten about it, except that our youth group leader gave it a shout out on Sunday morning, saying that his "high" of the week was that his favorite artist had released a new album on Friday.  A kid jokingly asked if he meant Harry Styles, and he said it was Zach Bryan.  For someone to say this is their favorite artist overall is an interesting tidbit.  As for the new album, it is very good, but it is also THIRTY-FOUR FREAKING SONGS AND OVER TWO HOURS LONG!!!!!!!  Holy hannah.  Come the hell on, man.  Can't you just do three separate albums instead?  My goodness.  The top track is "From Austin," with 20.5 million streams [now 48.6 million].

Lovely.

I'd definitely go check him out.  I just got to see his ACL Fest show, and he tore into "From Austin" with some extra verve and a crowd of folks who knew enough to yell the chorus along with him.  Pretty sweet.  He's got a cool look, a great voice, a songwriter's knack for finding interesting ways to tell a story, and a steadily-growing following, so I expect we'll have more good stuff to hear soon.  I like this.