ACL 2022: Zach Bryan

Friday at 4pm.  I'll look at the other artists but this is the #1 choice. It's a 26 year-old from Tulsa.  His mother died in 2017 and he processed his grief by writing songs. He recorded them in an Airbnb in Jacksonville, FL and put up the album, titled DeAnn after his mother, online in 2019.  Without a label, any representation, or even a website.  Despite that, word-of-mouth from the die-hard country music fans made his album an instant hit.  I'll let Savingcountrymusic describe his debut:

Anyone who tells you they knew about Zach Bryan beforehand is probably lying, present company included. All the effort expended at Saving Country Music headquarters running down leads on promising up-and-comers, and all the time spent out in the field sifting through the lineups of grassroots festivals and events throughout the year scouting for talent, and it would be a boldface lie to say I’d even heard his name until one of Zach Bryan’s songs called “Condemned” started swirling around YouTube a few weeks ago. Aside from the fact that he claims dual citizenship in Tulsa, OK and Seattle, WA on his Twitter account, nothing much else is known about the songwriter at this point, aside from what you can glean from his songs.

Here is "Condemned".  Also check out "Heading South". 

Turns out Zach Bryan was on active-duty in the Navy for 6 years when he released the album. Since then he released a second album, also without any representation, was honorably discharged from the Navy, signed with Warner Brothers, got Dave Cobb to produce his first major-label album, and finally started touring.  Whew.  Oh, his album went #1 on the country charts.  This without any touring and hardly any mainstream media exposure.  I still can't find any articles on him in the big publications.  Here's a lot more about him.

Loved by fans of Sturgill Simpson, Colter Wall, and Tyler Childers.  He's already considered the #1 songwriter based on the songs from his album, based on Billboard's Country Songwriters Chart.   Based on reviews of his concerts the crowd is very young, very excited, and they know all the words to his songs. 

Listen to this one, called "Sweet DeAnn" about his mom.  I'm not crying...

This is another great song with a great video, too:   "Something in the Orange"  "To you I'm just a man, to me you're all I am." Damn.

He's playing Stubb's on Wednesday October 5th.  I may want that as my birthday present.

More: "Darling". Reminds me of the Overenders campfire.

More: "Someday on My Mind". 

Someday I will come to my senses
Stop sitting on fences in fear
And I will realize after all of this time
That someday was always just right here

 

Today I will hold my head up high

Knowing some day has been here the whole damn time

There's a sun set setting, I ain't forgetting

The blood that made my heart warm

Today I found what I was searching for 

More: "Mine Again". I don't think he can make a bad song.

Here's a Youtube playlist of my favorites so far. A good introduction.

I'll end with "From Austin"